People In Lab Coats
by PrincessShotgun
Summary: This story follows the journey of Dr. Gero's granddaughter through the Android/Cell Saga. A young genius who never wanted anything to do with the mad scientist antics, is thrust into a position where she feels responsible for the illegal, unethical experiments and the destruction that's been brought to the world. OCs? Oh yeah. (Currently on Perma-Hiatus)
1. Prologue

Prologue

Disclaimer: Holy crap its been forever since I've done any fanfiction. It is obvious I don't own any part of the Dragonball series, right? I've had this idea kicking around in my head for forever, and I thought I might as well put it out into the great unforgiving Internet! I'd love to hear from any readers!

~Minnows BioSolutions, Nicky Town~

When it turned out that university life was not the only place she would be pulling all-nighters, Doctor Calliope Merriweather did not mind. This was easy to accept considering she loved her work, it would be fair to say that she was, more or less, married to her career. At the moment, in the dead of night, it was starting to wear on her. The usual fuel of youthful energy and caffeine were beginning to lose their edge.

Calliope's forehead was resting on the edge of her desk- which was a clutter of cups, wrappers from snacks, and a few stacks of papers. The lab by and large was empty of her fellow scientists and other associated staff. This wasn't odd, as it was well past midnight. Everyone had long since gone home to their families. Calliope had been resting her eyes and promised herself not to fall asleep. She had to finish waiting for the computer to analyze the samples she had gave it. The arrangement she had agreed to with herself was this, one more and then bed.

It was easier to get work done later at night, she found. Especially without her coworkers buzzing around needing things. The various requisition forms approved of, incident reports reported, sharing their various analyses. Not to mention the innate small talk so many of them insisted on having with her. 'Look at these pictures of my new baby!' or 'Waaah my wife doesn't love me anymore!'

Calliope loved her staff. They were some of the smartest individuals she could find. Their ability to manipulate and understand genetic code was amazing. Over a few short years, they had made many advancements in genetic engineering and genetic therapies. Disease resistant, higher-yield crops. Therapies that resolved inheritable disease for cattle and the general public. Even a cross-species engineered breed of super-large goats. But on a personal level, they could be downright annoying to deal with. She worked better alone.

"Doctor Merriweather!" The ever-cheerful voice called from her wrist. The avatar- a glowing blue blob with cat ears and emotive eyes- was something a group of the interns had come up with. Why Minnows BioSolutions employed interns undertook an AI assistant as a pet project, Calliope wasn't entirely sure. The department head for IT insisted that it was a 'worthwhile use of the budget' as well as 'a totally cool project'. She wasn't going to snuff having an exclusive smart assistant."You have an incoming call!"

"Who is it?" And why were they calling so late, she wondered.

"I don't know!" HoloCat, the working name for the AI, chirped back with a smile. It went on to explain when she continued staring at it, "Its an unlisted number!"

"Decline it." Calliope went back to looking at the results of an analysis she had printed out earlier. Tonight her focus had been on the improvement of milk output for cattle. She didn't have time for what was sure to be either a spam call or crank-calling kids.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat started again, barely a minute later. "You have an incoming call!"

"Is it the same number as before?" She asked without looking away from her paperwork. At this rate, it would take years to figure out the right combination between genes to get the results they were looking for.

"It is!"

"Decline it." Calliope puffed a small breath in a sigh. "And then block that number."

"Okay!"

She didn't have the energy or motivation to deal with whatever misdirected nonsense was on the other line. Calliope settled her attention back on her work. The computer indicated that the current analysis was 83% done, and it would be at least another hour until they were done.

"Doctor Merriweather!"

"Oh god damn it!" When HoloCat chirped again Calliope sat down her paperwork hard. "Do not tell me that's the same number calling again."

"It is!" HoloCat confirmed with a smile.

"Didn't I tell you to block it?"

"I did!"

"Well, once again, decline it, and tell them our standard hours of operation. Have them leave a voicemail if it's so damn important." Sighing again, Calliope had dismissed the interruption and tried to settle back into something productive. Before she could return to her paperwork outlining a previous analysis the HoloCat's avatar changed to look somewhat perplexed.

" _Young lady!_ " The voice on the other end of the call, which looked like it connected despite the order, had Calliope sitting up straight with surprise. " _Do you mind explaining to me why you have some juvenile-sounding AI acting as your secretary and rejecting my calls_?"

"Wh-Ah- Its a smart assistant for the lab. Some of our interns designed it." She said eventually, sounding dumb and ineffective. Recovering from the unexpected call, Calliope found herself frowning. "Maybe if you had a phone number my system recognized as yours then you wouldn't need to hack my computers to get me to talk to you."

" _And risk the paper trail? Don't be ridiculous_." The other voice grumbled on the line. " _Your 'smart assistant' said that you're still going by Merriweather_."

"I am." She had changed her surname going into university to avoid any extra infamy that her family name might incite. Calliope didn't want the association tied to her work. It would be like being the granddaughter of Doctor Frankenstein.

" _Well, probably for the best."_

"I know grandpa."

" _What was that AI calling itself? 'HoloCat'? It's an asinine name._ "

"I didn't pick the name, that was the interns." Calliope leaned with her head on her hand, already growing tired again. Even if this was her only surviving family, it was always exasperating talk to him.

" _I thought you worked in a genetics lab, what are your interns doing producing some... What is this, an AI programmed to act as a secretary?"_

"Yeah, its a pet project for some of our interns."

" _That seems a bit like a waste of resources. You really need to get your lab in order, Calliope._ "

"Yeah, I know grandpa." Closing her eyes for just a moment, she decided there was no point arguing.

" _You're smart enough to know better, Calliope. Just because you're years ahead of your peers doesn't mean you should slack now._ "

"I know, Grandpa." Calliope said this a little harsher then she meant to. The familiar argument wore on her patience.

He didn't respond for a few moments. She thought he might have hung up until she heard a sigh. When her grandfather spoke again, the severe edge had left his voice.

" _Yes, I suppose you do. And I didn't call to berate you about the intricacies of your career._ " This was a surprise. Normally he'd have at least a good five minutes of criticisms for her life choices. One or two comments about how she, the only living descendant of the great Doctor Gero, was most well known for her 'giant goats'. This would somehow segue into another five minutes of his own past failures. Then another five minutes about some kid that destroyed his long-lost army, how this 'Goku' guy was going to pay.

After 16 years of listening to the same rant, Calliope didn't think it was of great concern anymore. He had promised her that he was retired. No more revenge schemes. No more Red Ribbon.

" _How are you doing of late, dear?_ "

"I'm fine." She answered quickly, unsure what else to say. "Got a few projects in the works."

" _Still working on the cutting edge of genetic engineering, I assume?_ "

"We try to, yes. We've had a lot of success on a number of genetic therapies we've been working on."

" _Yes. That's good._ " The conversation trailed to silence for a moment. Calliope had a strange feeling that there was something her grandfather wasn't saying. There had to be some reason for him to depart the usual course of their conversations. " _You're still based out of Nicky Town, correct?_ "

"Our main labs are in the city, yes." She confirmed but had a growing suspicion that this was not a typical 'checking up on

one's granddaughter' conversation.

" _You aren't still commuting from Winters' facility, are you?_ " Her grandfather grumbled with potential disapproval. During her academic career, she had stayed with a family friend, Doctor Violet Winters. The woman always insisted on being called 'Aunt Violet' and was an eccentric character that rivaled even her grandfather. Calliope always assumed that working in a lab with infectious diseases drew that sort of personality.

"I have an apartment nearby," Calliope spoke while trying to gauge why Grandpa Gero was trying to confirm her location. She could feel a knot of concern growing in her belly, but couldn't necessarily justify why. After a moment she asked before she could stop herself, "Grandpa, is everything okay?"

" _Of course it is_." He answered immediately. " _I just wanted to check up and make sure you're doing well_."

With anyone else's family Calliope wouldn't be suspicious. She had always known her grandfather to be a cold, cautious man. He wasn't the kind of person who did things without a reason. So why reach out to her now?

"Grandpa. You know I hate to ask," She started carefully, and found herself reluctant to continue. "But you aren't planning... I don't know, some kinda coup or something, are you?"

Calliope knew there were people out there with relatives that _hadn't_ attempted to take over the world. Grandfathers who couldn't be called mad scientists. That must be nice, she thought.

" _Young lady, I don't appreciate the accusation or your tone_." And just like that, severe Grandpa Gero was back. " _You know I've retired. It's not a crime to check up on my granddaughter, is it?_ "

"It's not, no-" She tried to cut in, wanting to recover the conversation.

" _I'll be in touch Calliope. Best of luck with your research._ " With that, the line went dead, and Calliope was left feeling frustrated, and tired. She gave a huff and glared at HoloCat's avatar, which stared back with a sweet smile.

Something was up. What exactly, she couldn't be sure. She stared at HoloCat for a while, as if it could offer her any further clarification even though the call had ended. That call was odd, wasn't it? Odder then usual, whenever her grandfather chose to contact her. No mention of what she was doing at her lab so late as if it was normal for a 16-year-old to be running protein analysis at 12:35 am.

"Is there something I can help you with, Doctor Merriweather?" HoloCat asked eventually, enough to break Calliope out of her troubled thoughts.

"No, I'm fine." She looked around the workstation she occupied and suddenly felt too tired to continue. She should have felt assured that no catastrophe was going to be caused by her grandfather.

He was retired, after all. No more revenge schemes. No more Red Ribbon.

"Actually," turning back to HoloCat, Calliope decided to make one last note before calling it a night. "Keep an eye on any breaking news, anything that might be the actions of terrorists or any paramilitary groups. Any attacks, deaths, destruction of property. Things like that."

Calliope made a note and stuck it to the screen where the analysis was still running. Someone would record the results and get them back to her. She made an attempt to clean up the clutter on the desk and gathered her paperwork.

She left the computer running and navigated her way in the dim light to the side of the lab. Beyond another security checkpoint, a flight of stairs, her office waited for her. Flopping down on her couch, and covered with a blanket, she stared at the ceiling.

Perhaps it was time to try and check on her grandfather in person, Calliope thought idly. He was getting older, after all. Maybe his behavior and attitude could be attributed to mental degeneration. Perhaps Grandpa Gero was getting sentimental in his old age, and his intentions of checking in were genuine. She agreed with herself that, over the weekend she'd have a surprise visit with him. If she could track him down. She could bring a cake. Maybe they could catch up over tea. That would be nice.

'Yeah, I'm sure that will work out. What a joke.' Calliope immediately thought, and sighed. She rolled over and tried to get to sleep.


	2. Terrorists! Or Maybe Demons!

Chapter 1: Terrorists! Or Maybe Demons

One of these days, Calliope promised herself, she would take a vacation for the purpose of catching up on sleep. It was half-passed six in the morning when she thought this. She had stayed overnight on the couch of her office, as she did most nights. What was the point of going to a cold apartment when she'd be coming back into the lab the next day? A couch and throw blanket served the same purpose as a bed.

"Today the weather is fair! Temperatures are expected to reach 82 degrees, with partly cloudy skies!"

Calliope was still getting ready for the day while she listened to the morning report. She stared at herself in the mirror, in the private bathroom off her office. The usual dark circles under her green eyes were more prominent from a troubled sleep. Her dark hair was long and messy from tossing and turning most of the night. She was on the short side of average height and built slim. She was olive skinned, and her resting facial expression was just as severe as her grandfather's. 'Resting bitch face' one of her colleagues called it.

"Nicky Town city council is going to be revisiting a petition to ban sporks!" The adorable digital assistant continued expounding about local and regional events. HoloCat was the special pet project of some of her interns. So far Calliope had found it endlessly useful.

'HoloCat' was a working name that they had promised to rework down the line. Though for the current incarnation, the name fit. The small disk apparatus held a powerful system that was compatible with most computers. Atop the disk was a lens that projected the holographic display. The assistant program's default avatar was a blue blob, topped with cat ears and a cat-like face. The AI was quite sophisticated and allowed the user a smart, hands-free experience. HoloCat's standard programming guaranteed it was in a perpetually cheerful, chipper mood. Many times to the point of annoyance.

"Is there any news out of North City?" Calliope asked while taming her hair with a brush. The goal was to get it all in a bun, tight on the back of her head. She liked to keep a collected, controlled look about her.

"Nothing out of North City, Doctor." HoloCat answered, and then followed in an exciting babble, "But there was a two-headed cow born on a farm near Ginger Town!"

"No, that's not something grandpa would've done..." Calliope managed to get almost all her hair in line. But a few fly always persisted. "Unless he's trying to weaponize cows..."

"The farmer thinks it was demons that caused the calf's mutation!"

"Well... It probably wasn't.."

"The local farm community is taking precautions by hiring priests to bless their cattle!"

"Thank you, HoloCat, that's enough of that story." Calliope gave up, once again, on ever getting all her hair smooth and tame. It was a daily battle that she continued to forget to pick up hair product to remedy.

In the days following the last conversation with her grandfather, Calliope was quite anxious. This was partially due to worrying that her grandfather was unwell, and was no longer able to manage in his advancing years. From there, her anxiety was over tracking him down and visiting in person to try and confirm the first worry. If he was unwell, what could she do from there? She doubted that grandpa Gero would allow himself to be placed in a nursing home or hospital.

There was also a small, but significant worry that her grandfather actually was weaponizing something. It likely wouldn't be cows, of course.

She finished getting ready for the day with a smart blue sweater vest over a white dress shirt, black slacks, and practical flats. Otherwise, Calliope was unadorned. Later she would take up her lab coat when the workday began.

By 8 am Calliope had had her first cup of coffee, dropped off dry cleaning, and picked up a nice black forest cake from the bakery. She made sure to get two dozen assorted variety of doughnuts as well for the lab. Those nerds loved their sugared pastries. The cake was for the expectant visit with grandpa Gero. A professor in school she had once said: "If you are going to show up unannounced to someone's home, you should at least bring them a cake." Why they brought this up during a lecture in molecular genetics class, Calliope couldn't remember.

As she went about her morning HoloCat chattered away the various news stories. The morning went on, and the world woke up, and more stories filtered in. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Calliope figured she may as well keep an eye out for any strange goings-on.

Calliope was settled at her desk for the 9 am weather report. Her colleagues were filtering in, and she was onto her second cup of coffee. Paperwork was what usually occupied her in the morning. While there was a sizable amount on her desk, she couldn't bring herself to pay it much mind. She did make an effort to try and read and sign off where appropriate. To Calliope's credit, she was usually better about breezing through her morning paperwork.

She had been trying to pin down without a doubt her grandfather's whereabouts. There wouldn't be any kind of official records or lines of credit for her to follow. Grandpa Gero had always insisted on living 'off the grid'. This was a practice carried over from his time with the Red Ribbon Army. More so, as a creature of habit, it was also likely that he was still staying in an old lab. Would he still be at the one near North City? Calliope had been busy trying to check satellite footage to see if she could find any sign of activity.

If he was, it would be easy for him to continue illegal, unregulated experiments. But if she had to bet, the outskirts of North City would be where her grandfather would be. Knowing this didn't ease Calliope's anxiety. It was, perhaps, the combination of this unease and her erratic sleep schedule that lead to her not noticing her head of IT in front of her desk.

"Doctor Californication!" Jay greeted after more than a minute of standing in front of Calliope's desk.

Calliope started with a small curse, but after a moment gave him a polite smile.

"Jay, the uh, Jay-man." Calliope started in an awkward, but friendly way. She always made an effort to get along with her technical support. They were the guys who kept the computers and networks running after all. Besides, she liked Jay. He was a weird guy, but likable.

Jay was a larger man, a decade older then Calliope, and always had a joke and a smile beneath his bushy beard. IT did always have a slack dress code, as shown in one of his choice outfits of cargo shorts and graphic t-shirt.

"So what is the happy-haps?' Jay invited himself to sit across from her. He gave a pointed look at the mess of paperwork, HoloCat's aerial view of the mountains, and Calliope herself who looked quite maddened in her search. "Mad scientist shenanigans?"

"What. No. No shenanigans here." She stared hard at Jay and a look of panic flashed across her face. Calliope made an effort to straighten up her desk and recovered her composure. "Mostly just incident reports, and some other... Stuff. Um. But thank you for coming, I did want to talk."

"If it's about that email that everyone received last week, you don't need to worry about it." Jay waved his hand as if to dismiss whatever he was talking about. "I already told that guy off, totally taken care off."

"..Wasn't... Wasn't that you, Jay?" Calliope remembered the previous week, to both amusement and some professional embarrassment. An email was sent from an administrative account to everyone, detailing concerns for a rogue planet that was due to collide with Earth. She stared at Jay with an arched eyebrow. It was a well-known secret that the head of IT was a bit of a conspiracy nut.

"Space is a really big place. We don't know everything that's out there." Jay said a concerning amount of confidence.

"Right. Yeah." She nodded and decided not to make a debate about the idea of a mystery planet that was destined to collide with Earth. That no space agency had been able to confirm. Ever. The last few days had disrupted her usual well-planned scheduling, and she didn't have the energy or interest for that kind of discussion. She was interested in another matter and gave Jay a serious look. "Did you look into that thing? That phone number?"

"Ooh right, that phone number. Sure did Boss. I wasn't able to track down anything on it though. Pretty sure they spoofed it and did a damn good job of covering their tracks." He leaned on his elbows, and whispered conspiratorially, "Its the government, isn't it? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

She managed to stop herself from making a face. She wanted to ask Jay just what the Hell the government would want with her. But she didn't. He would have some kind of convoluted answer about how the government abducts scientists to work on secret government projects. Calliope didn't feel like having that conversation right now.

"No, Jay," Calliope answered after a moment. "Its just something-"

" _Ahh_! Doctor Merriweather!" she was cut off by HoloCat's sharp cry. The AI was normally polite to limit interrupting an ongoing conversation. HoloCat was using its 'urgent' tone of voice usually reserved for weather warnings. "There's been breaking news out of South City of an attack by suspected terrorists! Or possibly more demons! The News report was not really clear!"

"Shit, that sounds serious." Jay did not sound as worried as HoloCat sounded, or as Calliope was starting to feel. "Wait, did HoloCat say demons?"

The existing knot of anxiety tightened in her stomach, and Calliope immediately stood up. Could this be it? Was this the start of some disaster her grandfather was bringing? Was this some kind of coup attempt?

"What terrorists? Do they have an idea of what group?" Calliope stared at HoloCat, who by now had closed down the satellite display

and had gone back to the cat blob avatar. HoloCat had a neutral expression and a little frown. "HoloCat, has any known organization claimed responsibility?"

"No one has claimed responsibility or been blamed. The story broke just a minute ago while an on-site reporter was doing a live poll on the upcoming city council elections when the attack happened down the street! There was mention of demons draining people's life! Then some other guys showed up and-"

"I have to go! I have a- a thing! That I forgot about and I am now late for!" The words tumbled out of Calliope's mouth as scrambled to ready herself. The mess of paperwork on her desk was forgotten as she gathered her courier bag, and tried to fill it with anything she might need from around her office. Bottled water, stun gun, pamphlets for some very nice nursing homes, extra socks.

"What is it Doc? Is everything okay?" Jay had remained and was watching Calliope run around her office with a concerned look.

"Its fine just something I have to deal with!" Calliope didn't have time to explain. She was on her way to hurry out the door and scooped up the cake and was almost to the door. She didn't want to believe this might be something her grandfather was doing. But, he was more than capable enough of. She needed to look him in the eye to know for sure.

"I'm coming with you." Jay had stood up, and had a rare stern expression.

"What, no it's fine." The anxiety must have leaked into her voice because Calliope didn't sound or feel sure.

"Right, because its totally not weird for you to freak out over a news report and then rush off, with a cake?" He gestured at her as if to reference her sudden panicked mood. "Besides, and I don't want you to take this the wrong way, I don't feel good letting a 16-year-old run off to do god-knows-what in god-knows-where that might have to do with the maybe terrorist or maybe demons that have got you spooked."

It couldn't hurt to have company, right? At this point either her grandfather was in his lab, harming no one. In this case, she could explain that he was, in truth, her eccentric relative. An eccentric relative that possibly needed to be talked to about going to a retirement home. In which case maybe a stranger being present would maybe be a calming influence. Or, grandpa Gero was off attacking people in the street. Maybe reforming Red Ribbon. If the latter was what they were dealing with... Jay did have better knowledge about accessing computer systems. Perhaps there would a remote shut down for any killer androids.

"Fine." She answered, after weighing the possibilities. If she was being honest with herself, Calliope welcomed the company.

"Okay! Alright! So, heading to South City?"

"No." She tried to calm herself as they made their way out of the office, down the hall, down the stairs. "North City. Well, north of North City. In the mountains."

"Why are we going to the mountains?"

"Because." She would figure out a better explanation later.

They exited the security checkpoint and were back in the main lab areas. Many of the other scientists were distracted, the news of 'terrorist attacks' in South City having reached them. They were gathered in small groups around computers. There was a tense air in the lab. It was the perfect opportunity to slip out unnoticed, with a note left with the receptionist.

In short order, the two were on their way. Calliope provided the coordinates for them to go to, and Jay piloted. The first half of their journey, they remained silent.

"So..." Jay began, "What exactly are we heading into the mountains for? Emergency camping trip?"

Up to this point, she had been able to dodge any questions with one-worded, nondescript responses. Calliope didn't answer right away. She instead stared ahead out the window, cake clutched in her lap. Time had run out for her to come up with what to tell him.

"We're going to see my grandfather. He has a lab in the mountains out here." She eventually spoke, no lies yet. She didn't want to have to lie to Jay. But she also didn't want to drop all off her strange truth on him at once.

"And what does your grandfather have to do with the terrorist attack in South City?"

"Well, if we're lucky, my grandpa will be at his lab, and he'll be a crotchety old man when we show up." That's it, she thought, just ease him into it. As much as a weird guy he was, perhaps he was the best person to talk to about this. Jay was an open-minded individual, and the least judgmental person she knew. Plus, he was already ready to believe quite a few things from conspiracy theory forums.

"Uh-huh." Jay spared a minute from looking where they were going- open-air luckily- to look at her. His silent urging her to continue.

"And if we're not lucky.." She didn't want to have to say it out loud.

"Yeah..?"

"My grandfather _may_ be in his lab. But in addition to being crotchety and old, he'll also be building killer robots."

"Mm-hmm." Jay nodded, in a sympathetic way. It was the kind of way she'd expect him to react if she had told him a relative had died. "Is this something he might have done before?"

"...Maybe." Calliope could feel herself cringe as she answered. "Yes."

"Wait, are you serious?" Jay suddenly looked surprised. "You're not joking?"

"I'm not joking, Jay."

"You're _really_ not joking?"

"I'm really not."

"Oh. Wow. Okay!" Jay swiveled to keep his eyes on the sky as they approached the mountain range. He now looked quite shocked. He must've believed her, and was trying to process things. "That's a bit more serious then the government coming after you."

"Goddammit, the government isn't after me!" Calliope insisted with exasperation. They fell into a few moments of silence. She was calmer after taking a few deep breaths, "Please don't share this on any forums or blogs."

"Will you get your granddad to kill me with his killer robots if I do?" Jay tried to joke, though he was still clearly shaken.

"Well, I want to confirm whether or not there actually are any more killer robots or androids, or whatever he calls them first." Calliope sighed and fiddled with the ribbon on the cake box. "The best case scenario that I can imagine is that we have to talk him into living in a nursing home. Which will be, just, so much fun.."

As they approached the exact location of the lab, Jay had taken care to slow down. The mountain peaks and high winds of this area were a known flying hazard. He had slowed to a stop as Calliope indicated their arrival.

"Uh, are you sure this is the right place?" Jay looked at all the mountains and sheer cliffs of the area. "Cause I'm not seeing any lab, Cal. Or much of anything aside from some goats."

"Yeah, well it's not going to have a big sign on the front of it." Calliope tried to differentiate between the rocks and sides of the mountains. She had lived here for years, before university and starting her own career. She would have thought she'd be able to pick out where her old home was with ease. Then she spotted it, the craggy overhang, flat portion of rock and the bottom of the door just visible from the angle they hovered at. "Take us down on that plateau, we'll be able to climb down to the entrance."

"Seriously? We're going to be climbing?"

"Yeah." She found Jay staring incredulously at her, and Calliope shrugged. "He's a paranoid old scientist. He doesn't like being easily accessible."

The two set down not too far above the entrance to the lab. Jay insisted on collapsing their small airship into its compact capsule form. Though it was doubtful that anyone would be around to steal it. While the climb down was not too difficult, it had its challenges. With a cake in one arm, and Jay complaining about every step that he didn't bring the right shoes for this activity. They were not the most physically fit people, and by the time they were safe on the landing Calliope and Jay were quite out of breath and sweating.

"Oh man, if ever there was a wake-up call for me to get in shape," Jay complained as he leaned forward with his hands on his knees.

The climb did a good job of warming her blood enough to keep off the cold. But Calliope found a shiver go down her back as she was finally back there, before the large metal doors. She steeled herself, ran her hand over her hair, and gave a series of hard, polite knocks to the door.

"Grandpa? Are you in there?" Calliope knew she'd have to shout to have her voice heard from inside. Half a minute and no reply, she gave a harder knock with a fist and called out again, "Grandpa! It's Calliope!" Still no reply, and she almost hoped that he wasn't there. "I'm coming in grandpa!"

The access panel was in the same place she remembered, with a number pad hidden behind a plate textured to blend into the rockface. She had worried that the old access code she punched in wouldn't work. After hitting the confirmation button, Calliope waited and listened. There was the quietest clicking, then a deep grinding sound as the doors pulled themselves open.

"Grandpa?!" Calliope began calling again as she stepped in, Jay trailed silently behind her.

There was just enough light to see the outline of the interior. There were desks cluttered with papers and pens, computers, on one wall what looked like an old mainframe. A handful of large cylindrical structures took up much of the space. Calliope closed the door and flipped on the lights, more dreadful detail flooded the lab.

"Ooh man," Jay said, with more than a little awe in his voice beside her. Neither of them could stop staring, trying to make complete sense of everything inside. "You were really not joking."

"Grandpa?" Calliope called again, still shouting. The knot of worry was tight in her stomach again, and everything she saw inside here just made it worse. This was not the home of a man retired from a life of making advanced, dangerous androids, much less a sane man.

She left Jay to stand rooted near the door and found herself rushing to find any trace of her grandfather. Many of these computers still had the iconic Red Ribbon emblem embellished on them. So little of the lab was the same as she remembered it. Many of these things must have been added after she left for university. She would have remembered tubes with what looked like people inside against that wall.

Calliope had thought she would have been prepared for this eventuality. But she found herself dismayed in the reality that she couldn't deny, or ignore. It was turning into a growing sense of outrage.

"Grandpa! We need to talk!" Now she was punctuating her raised voice with angry tones. Calliope felt a flash of irrational rage as she saw ever-more evidence that Grandpa Gero was very much lying and likely had been for years. Maybe her whole life. She rushed to check the side rooms off the main lab, trying to find him.

What was once a small bedroom had the bedrolls stacked against the wall, to make room for boxes of equipment. Where the hell was her grandfather sleeping? Why was there surgical equipment in this room that used to be a small kitchen? Was her grandfather operating on people? Or on himself? What in the fresh Hell had been going on in her absence?

"Calliope?" Jay called from the main room. He sounded shocked, and a bit confused, "There are people in tubes in here. Why does your granddad have people in tubes?!"

"Just don't touch anything!" She snapped and left the kitchen to return to the main lab. Jay was standing before the large containment cylinders. Calliope wouldn't be settled now that she was here. She passed by her tech, going to a desk to try and find something in the paperwork there. There were schematics that looked suspiciously like plans for mechanical parts for arms. There were some maps of the surrounding cities and townships. Notes on population density. "They're probably more _goddamn androids_ my grandfather built to kill people because apparently, _this_ is what passes for _retirement_ nowadays!"

Calliope was sure she could handle this situation with more composure. At the moment, she was struggling with the concept. How was she expected to be calm here?

The door they entered though began grinding open again, and before Calliope could ready herself, she was face to face with her grandfather. He looked so much older then Calliope remembered, but just as severe. What disturbed her was confirmation that her grandfather was not well. He looked like he had been brawling in the street. One of his arms was missing at the elbow, and the top half of his brain was visible by way of some kind of class case. Where Gero had initially entered with a concerned look, muttering something to himself, he caught sight of his granddaughter and faltered with shock.

"Calliope? What-" That shock went back to anger in an instant, "Young lady what are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here?" Calliope began in a low, stern tone of her own, and her voice grew as she gestured around the lab. "What the Hell have _you_ been doing here? What the Hell have you done to yourself?!"

"That-that's is none of your business! You shouldn't be here, it's not safe!" Gero slapped the controls to close and lock the door behind him as he advanced on Calliope. There was a wild look in his usually cold eyes. That would have worried her more if she wasn't so angry.

"Maybe it would be if you would stop building robots to kill people!" If there was a pretense of polite conversation before, it was now gone. Calliope was now yelling, "You promised me you had retired! Your _arms_ are not supposed to get cut off when you're retired!"

"They are _androids_ , and I _can't_ expect that you would be able to understand my reasons!" Gero pushed passed his granddaughter and was frantically searching through the clutter on one of the nearby desks. He continued arguing loudly, " _Just_ as i don't understand why you would show up unannounced like this! Of all days!"

"And I'm sure you have a very good reason! I'm sure your reasons are perfectly sound!" Calliope shouted with a sarcastic edge. "How am I suppose to not show up unannounced when I don't have any way of contacting you?!"

"Young lady do _not_ take that tone with me!" He turned to give a pointed look to her and gestured towards the back of the lab. After a moment, and taking a breath, he regained some composure. "I want you to take your fat friend, and go to the basement lab, and we will discuss this later!"

"Absolutely not!" Calliope stood her ground.

"Calliope, I need you to understand that there are men coming to kill me _right now_ , and I can't guarantee your safety unless you get into the _damned sub lab_!" He was pushing her suddenly, towards the back of the lab. When she still wasn't willing Gero forcibly grabbed her about the middle and carried her.

"Put me down! We're going to talk about this right now!" Calliope demanded as she kicked and struggled. This man couldn't possibly be her grandfather, she thought madly. Her grandfather didn't have this strong of a grip.

" _You_! Fat man!" Gero called to jay, who was watching in confused fear, and nodded towards the back of the lab, " _Move_."

"Calliope, I think it might be a good idea to listen to your grandfather!" Jay wasn't able to keep the tremble, begging tones from his voice. He slowly backed himself, trying to keep the distance from Gero and Calliope's wild kicks for freedom. Of course, he was scared of her grandfather. 'The spineless neckbeard,' she thought angrily.

"Shut! Up! Jay!" Calliope kept resisting, in the small way she could. She kept hollering through the short trip through the re-purposed kitchen, to a back hall she wasn't familiar with. Jay had shuffle-walked backward with his hands up in surrender.

"Open that hatch there!" Gero instructed Jay, and somewhere near the front of the lab, there was some banging on the door. When he spoke again she could tell her grandfather was trying to keep his cool. "Now Calliope, I am going to explain everything to you when things settled down! But first, you are going to _calm yourself_ , and hide!"

"No! I'm not waiting anymore to have this conversation!" Calliope gave a good thrash, to no success. She felt her grandfather's grip loosen for a moment before his hand slapped down firmly over her mouth. Her objections were muffled but persistent.

"There will be _plenty_ of time for that, dear," Gero spoke in a tone that was meant to be comforting, but Calliope's chest fluttered with renewed worry. She found her limbs grew heavy and clumsy as if she had been drugged. When he took his hand away she spotted a red gem embedded in the flesh of his palm. Was that another modification he'd made to himself? "That's right, you're just going to calm down for a while. I will come to get you when I've dealt with these pests.."

Calliope found that her legs were not able to hold her up as well, as Gero gingerly passed her bodily to Jay. The fury of her righteous indignation was so dimmed by a flood of exhaustion. Her sight had gone fuzzy around the edges. She wasn't able to fight her tech support urging her down a ladder into darkness. Jay had to half-carry her down, and the next thing she was aware of was being sat up on the cold floor, in the near-perfect dark.

"Jay.." Calliope groaned and felt his hand squeezing her own. She gathered herself, and spoke with a groggy voice, "What the hell?"

"Doc, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Her body still felt heavy, and she had to force herself to focus. Had she somehow managed to get drugged?

She searched blindly with one hand until she felt the rungs of the ladder, and pulled herself up to stand. This level was soundproof, she knew, but for a few moments listened to try and catch any kind of activity from above. Her grandfather said before that there were men trying to kill him. Would they have been able to locate the lab?

"Grandpa?" Calliope called up the ladder. Her voice was not as loud as she'd like it to be.

Even soundproofed the noise from above clearly reached the two. The sound of a great cacophony shook the lab as if the mountain above had been decimated by a great bomb. As rubble settled above, the two were left with deafening silence. Calliope continued staring upwards and wondered what great disaster had happened above.

"Doctor Merriweather! You have a new email!" HoloCat chirped happily at her wrist.


	3. Baby Monster Drama

Chapter 2: Baby Monster Drama

Calliope liked to think that she was a level-headed, logical person. She had been raised by a cold man who valued smart practicality. There was nothing in her life she hadn't be able to resolve through critical thinking, and dedicated action. She always strove to conduct herself in a calm, collected manner.

"Goddammit, Grandpa! Open this damn hatch right now!" She shrieked upwards. Right now, she was banging at a locked hatch with a broomstick with one hand, the other clinging to the top of the ladder. Calm, collected thinking escaped her at this moment. But considering the turn that day's events had taken, she felt justified in indulging in a bit of anger. It was amazingly cathartic.

"Doctor Merriweather, you have a new email!"

It had taken an hour to rouse herself from whatever her grandfather had done to make her feel so drained. She still suspected that he drugged her. Calliope was trying to rationalize how she didn't see something like this happening. She ignored her digital assistant, who had been alerting her every few minutes to a new email. There would be time to read all her email, which were surely starting to pile up at this time of day, later.

"We need to have a serious discussion about your retirement activities!" Calliope was relentless against the exit and punctuated every other word with a bang with the broomstick.

They had gotten the lights turned on in the lower lab, which revealed even more proof of her grandfather's activities. Up to this point she had been able to hide comfortably behind a firm sense of indignation. She didn't want to know what was on the computers or written on the schematics. She definitely did not want to take a closer look at whatever was in that large tank near the back. Oh no, that was too much to deal with right now

"Hey Cal?" Jay called up, cautiously. He had spent his time muttering in amazement at all the things he found in the lab. Now that there wasn't a mad scientist glaring him down, his fear was dulled by how excited he was to be there. After making a lap around the lab to examine things, he was trying to use a calming voice with her, "How about you come down?"

"No!" Calliope spoke between banging against the lid, "Not until this damn hatch opens!"

"I don't think... Calliope! The upper lab might not even be there anymore!" Jay was more urgent in his pleas. She paused for a moment to consider his words. "You heard that explosion earlier! We need to look for another way out of here."

She continued giving a hard glare up to the hatch, not wanting to admit that Jay was right. What if her grandfather didn't make it out? There was too much that still needed to be said to, and yelled at, her grandfather. What the Hell was he thinking? Why did he lie to her for so long? Calliope needed answers. When she looked down to Jay, she noticed HoloCat patiently staring from her wrist. Usually, the avatar went into sleep mode after a minute of inactivity.

"What?" Calliope frowned at the avatar. She would not put up with being lectured to by an AI. She didn't think she would be able to stop herself from throwing the little ball of sunshine against the hatch next.

"You have a new email!" HoloCat chirped. The avatar kept smiling, as if oblivious to their current situation.

"Okay, well, I know. You told me about a hundred time since we've been down here. I'll get to it later."

Calliope had turned to start banging at the locked hatch again when HoloCat continued. "Its marked as urgent! And it's from a contact that you have set the alert as 'pester until acknowledged.'"

"Who is it from?" There were only a handful of people she had set with that level of alert. Like most things in her life, they were usually professional contacts.

"It's from 'Grandpa'!"

Calliope froze, and then tossed the broomstick she had been using as a banging utensil. She made her way back down the ladder as fast as she could without slipping. Perhaps her grandfather was contacting her now to let them know he was safe. Maybe he could explain what that explosion was.

She hopped off when she was a couple feet from the floor, and pulled HoloCat back up. Jay had taken interested as well and stood next to Calliope.

"Open it, HoloCat." Calliope felt her heart pick up its pace as the avatar blob collapsed, and the holographic screen expanded to show the email. A red frowny face in the corner indicated that HoloCat didn't have an internet connection. How was it able to get the email through?

It had been years since she had received anything from that address. Whenever she did try to message back it was always met with an automated failure to deliver. Just like the phone number he called from, it was always untraceable.

The subject was simply 'To Calliope'. There was not much to the body of the message. 'Watch the attached video file, then come home.'What the Hell was that suppose to mean? If anything this lab was the closest thing she knew to a home.

HoloCat opened the video, and it took over the hologram with a black screen at first. The video began with her grandfather usual severe gaze at the screen. He looked just like Calliope remembered. His wild long white hair with the top of his head bald, dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep.

" _Calliope, if you're watching this, it means I'm dead_." He spoke in a gruff tone and looked uncomfortable. " _I recognize that we've never had the closest of relationships, and I have no one but myself to blame for that. I always kept you at a distance once you were older, and started to understand things more. I know I've made you promises, dear, many of which I never intended to keep. I have lied to you so much, I almost don't know where to start explaining._ " Calliope felt that she should have been surprised. She wasn't, not at after that morning so far.

" _In a very short while, I will implement the last phases of a plan I have been working on for years. Considering your watching this video, I suppose its safe to say either my enemies or possibly one of my latest creations has killed me. This is why I need you to return home, Calliope. I'm leaving you all my worldly possessions, research, and active projects.-_ "

"Dammit, pause it, HoloCat." Calliope cursed, and couldn't bring herself to look at the video at that moment. Instead, she paced several steps this way, then that, her eyes not focusing on anything particular. She didn't want to listen to the rest of the video. At the same time, she knew she needed to find out what else her grandfather had to say to her. She continued pacing and didn't look at the screen when she had HoloCat resume playback.

" _I know you have a lot of questions, so allow me to directly answer some of the more obvious ones. No, I never truly retired. Yes, I have continued building androids. Yes, I still intend to kill Goku. I'm sorry to have lied to you, Calliope. I want you to know I always intended to involve you. Especially now, when I believe your expertise is needed on an important project..._ "

" _You will find him in the sub lab. He'll be quite hard to miss_." Calliope did not like the way this video was going. As she listened to her grandfather go on, she finally turned her attention to the tank near the back. Where she had been pointedly ignoring it before, she now went straight towards the container. Something her 'expertise' was needed for. This was something her grandfather wanted her, of all people, to work on.

Her grandfather's voice was starting to take on a manic tone as if he couldn't contain his excitement. " _I have managed to gather the most excellent genetic components for this project. He will be built from the strongest warriors in the Galaxy! A perfect amalgam of our enemies that will be an apt weapon to turn against them! A weapon capable of eliminating the most grievous failures that 17 and 18 have become, and thus ascending to ultimate, unstoppable power!_ "

Did he really think this was something she would agree to? To help him build some kind of genetically-engineered super soldier? Calliope hated hearing the madness that consumed her grandfather. She shut her eyes against the green glow of the tank, not wanting to see the small, currently innocuous creature growing inside it.

" _This, my dear daughter, is my true legacy, and will be your greatest work! Your epic poem that will carry through the ages!_ " Did he just refer to her as his daughter? Calliope opened her eyes and stared at the rest of the video, waiting for an answer. Gero looked to try and calm himself down with a few deep breaths. " _I know you still have questions, of course. Come home, and everything will be explained through research. From here I can promise, no more lies._ " His voice had softened, " _I hope you can understand, I always wanted the best for you. Goodbye, Calliope._ "

The video ended abruptly there. The screen hung on black for a few seconds before the screen reverted to HoloCat's avatar. Calliope put a hand to her face to rub her forehead, trying to work out a headache that was growing there. He was finally gone. The only family she had had any knowledge of. Additionally, he left her with a mess of epic proportions that she wasn't sure where to start in clearing up.

"Oh my god, who the Hell was your grandpa Calliope?" Jay uttered with a degree of shock. He had been silent up to this point, not interrupting the video will.

"...You're pretty big into conspiracy theories and weird stuff, right?" Her voice had lost the harsh edge that it had earlier. The ire and indignation were now replaced with a cold, despondent calm. "How much do you know about the Red Ribbon army?"

"Not as much as I wish I did... They tried to take over the world government, right? A guy in my Truth Chasers group said he use to be a foot soldier for them years ago." He watched Calliope, clearly worried now. As Jay spoke, she recognized a spark of understanding in his voice. "It was run by some

kind of mad scientist, who built... killer robots.."

"Yeah." Calliope gave a deep sigh. She was glad she wouldn't have to explicitly explain. With any luck, Jay would not freak out with this information. "That would be my grandpa. Good old Doctor Gero."

They fell back into silence after that, for a few minutes. Calliope did not know how to mourn this loss. Even if she did, she knew she didn't have the time right now. The cold man who raised her did not see a point in wasting time on tears, and neither did she. The energy would be better spent elsewhere. She took a deep breath and accepted that the time to act to prevent further catastrophe was now.

"Jay, go start searching for a way out," Calliope spoke with purpose. When this was truly her home there was no alternative way out of the basement lab. But her grandfather had made many changes to the laboratory in the past years, perhaps an escape route was one of them. She turned her attention back to HoloCat, "HoloCat I'm going to need to send an email to Belfast. He's probably wondering where I'm at."

"I'm sorry Doctor Merriweather, I don't currently have any way to access the Minnows BioSolutions network." HoloCat had with a sheepish look. There was still a little red frowny face near the bottom of the display.

"How were you able to get the email earlier then?"

"Oh, it was on the local network at _**LOCATION UNAVAILABLE**_!" The last part HoloCat yelled in a distorted voice and afterward looked a bit startled. It quickly recovered a smile and continued, "I was able to make a connection to the wireless network when we arrived! Then the local computer released the email at 11:48 am, and I saw that it was addressed to you, and I was able to convince the computer to release the email to me! Once it realized I was accessing it with your profile it was really nice! Then I lost connection to the Internet at the same time of a localized seismic event at 11:46 am!"

"Great. That'll be fun to deal with later." Calliope sighed again. "Fine. I want you to go through the files here. Find me everything you can find about my grandfather's projects, compile an overview, and let me know when its ready for review."

She had turned to approach the console for the tank but saw that Jay was still standing there, and had been watching her carefully. He still looked nervous because of the situation they had found themselves.

"Calliope. Are you... Are you okay?" It was clear Jay was uncomfortable.

"I'm fine." This wasn't exactly true, but Calliope liked to maintain a controlled appearance.

"Okay, I mean, are you sure? Your grandpa just..." Jay awkwardly gestured.

"Died. Yes, I know."

"If you need to cry, you know, that's okay." Jay continued to press the matter. It was sweet of him to worry, even if it was annoying.

"I know. I'm fine." Calliope kept reminding herself to take deep breaths. "Sync our HoloCats up, they'll pull data off the system faster. Then try and find an exit."

She turned back to the console at the tank and tested her access to the system. Her first priority was to figure out what, exactly, her grandfather had started making.

"So, what are you going to do about the, ah." Jay once again gestured, this time to the tank. "The monster-baby."

"Oh, you mean the genetically-engineered super-soldier monster-baby?" Calliope nodded to the small, squishy looking thing. "I'm going to terminate it. Then I want to know everything else that's been going on here. If there are more androids somewhere, whether loose or contained, I want to know. Or any other kind of nonsense that's been going on! I don't want any more surprises!"

~Elsewhere~

Outside, the sun was shining warmly. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and it was a comfortable 82 degrees outside. It was a genuinely beautiful summer day, and it made for pleasant stalking of the local population for Cell.

He had awoken feeling fresh after sleeping for what felt like forever. He spent years hidden underground, with his exoskeleton growing tighter and more confining. But his body was returned to its former glory. It felt exquisite to be able to stretch his body and move freely again. Finally, he was able to give proper attention to his hunt.

The day thus far had been equal parts informative, fruitful, and frustrating. While the past did have what he needed to achieve his completed, perfect form, it also held exponentially more dangers. Where the warriors of his time were already eliminated, it seemed that they were in fighting fit condition here and now. Piccolo alone had proved to be more of a challenge than Cell was ready for. For the time being, at least.

The Z-warriors would still be scrambling to locate him. Cell could still feel them flitting around, on the periphery of his senses. He wouldn't give the poor fools another chance to catch him again. Not before he was ready. 17 and 18 would inevitably give their location away, in their foolish reckless nature. He had to be ready to pounce at any time.

For now, the game had a clear set for him to follow. Avoid those that would kill him, be ready to strike the androids, and hunt the local population as the apex predator he was created to be. Critical thinking and dedicated action would lead him to victory.

It was a pleasant surprise to find the human population untouched in this timeline. Each town was woefully unprepared for the particular disaster Cell brought to them. These people were living simple lives, with no reason to think they would be in danger. The people in this town didn't even have the sense to start with the screaming until he had absorbed about a dozen of them. It did not take long to shatter their sensibilities.

"Oh god! Its here! Run!" There were only so many things these people would say in this kind of situation. This was the only case where he did not strictly adhere to a rule of stealth. It was beautifully chaotic; people ran in the streets, they streamed out of buildings, and into buildings. They tried to find safety in back alleys and closets.

Cell had cleared the streets and was tightening his focus to the buildings to sniff them out of hiding.

"Please! No! Don't kill me!" Cell found that when cornered, captured without a hope of survival, they always begged. Did they actually think that after the thousands of lives he's taken that he would suddenly be inspired to be merciful? This one in a cramped convenience store could do little more than scream. No words, just fearful sounds. The noise was cut off when his tail stabbed deep in this one's chest with enough force to slam the body against the rack of snacks.

From behind the counter, more screaming, this time with an inflection of anger. Before the bat could make contact Cell's hand had shot out to wrap around the clerk's neck. Even when they fought back, it was still too easy. The one against the snacks had since ceased screaming, and the flesh was beginning to collapse in on itself.

"I'll be with you in just a moment." Cell spoke quietly to the clerk, with a low voice like gravel. By chance, when he turned his gaze to look at his latest meal, something on the magazine rack caught his eye.

'Young Genius Playing God? Scientist Create Giant Goats!' The headline read in bold lettering, below there was a picture of a girl. There was a surprised look on her face, clearly, she was not expecting to have her picture taken for a tabloid. She was young, her dark hair tied back, and her eyes had a cutting quality. For the moment, at least, Cell forgot about making a meal out of the store clerk. With his free hand, he lifted the magazine to get a closer look. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It was Her, he was certain. Cell's attention was brought back to the clerk when the bat broke against the back of his head.

His tail whipped around in an instant, this time slamming home in the store clerk. With this one pinned on the floor, Cell was able to casually flip through the pages of the tabloid. He found the article he was interested in. 'Young genius and genetic engineer, Calliope Merriweather, is the creator of a new species of goat know as 'Mega Goats'. The new breed is boasted as being a crossbreed of cow, goats, and elk, and was made to be a solution to world hunger...' The article went on to note the public outrage at genetic-engineering in general, that it was scientists trying to play at being God. Cell skimmed until he caught what he wanted to know. 'Dr. Merriweather's work... for Minnows BioSolutions... Nicky Town.'

The rest of the article didn't matter. She was here. The androids were on the loose, and according to the chat with Piccolo, Dr. Gero senior was dead. Would she know about him yet? She had to, by now. That's right, he remembered, she used to go by Merriweather. And she had a lab in Nicky Town.

If there was anyone that could appreciate his goals, it would be her. He chuckled at the idea of Cell could just imagine how proud she would be to see the end result of all her work.

How exciting.

~Under the Pile of Rubble in the Mountains~

"Oh. My. God! Calliope!" Jay called excitedly from the computer terminal he was sat at. "Your grandpa had a network of freaking spy flies! There are freaking dozens of them! That's how he gathered tissue samples from those warrior-guys! Oooooh, that's so freaking cool!"

"Yeah and I bet you won't find any legal waivers signed by a single goddamn person for use of their tissue and genetic information.." Calliope was standing near the growth tank trying to decipher plans and schematics. She had taken off the sweater vest and rolled up her sleeves as they fell down the rabbit hole of research left by her grandfather.

Jay wasn't able to find an alternate escape route. They had been trapped for hours. While this was disappointing, distressing even, at the moment Calliope found she didn't mind as much as she should have.

She was still trying to wrap her head around everything that was here. There were the plans for all of the androids, failed and successful, as well as extensive cybernetic plans. She earmarked most of these and set them to the side, they were far too advanced for her to figure out. The plans for the androids designated 17 and 18 she kept spread on the table. How the hell were these suppose to be integrated into the super soldier project? Even after being raised by The Doctor Gero, she never had a full grasp on advanced robotics. The organic sciences were always more her cup of tea.

"How the Hell is this even suppose to..." Calliope kept looking between schematics for what would more properly be called cyborgs, and the notes and plans for the project she had dubbed 'Project of Extremely Unethical Means'. She took a moment to step back from the table and rub her temples. Aside from being infuriating, it was an overwhelming challenge to try and figure out so much out at once. "I can't tell if these plans are just plain stupid and won't work... Or if its stupid and will work."

By the looks of it, and this creature was able to integrate 17 and 18 into its mass, it would be capable of expending worrisome amounts of energy. Of course, Calliope had no way of knowing if those cyborgs were even still around. They were listed as being stored in the upper lab, and she was sure it was those 'people in tubes' that had Jay so concerned. There were too many what if's and hypothetical situations playing through her mind.

The hours were starting to wear on her patience.

"HoloCat have you finished the genetic sequencing for Lil' Squishy?" Calliope decided to return to something she had a firmer grasp on. The thing her grandfather had outsourced to her. It was obvious why after her initial examination of the creature she had dubbed "Lil' Squishy". The poor thing wasn't even capable of sustaining its own life. For a normal fetus, this wasn't too out of the ordinary. What was unusual was how much extra help Lil' Squishy required. There were tubes and small devices connected for controlling respiration, to keep its small heart going, to attempt to balance hormone levels. It was painful for her to look at.

She was doubtful that, even if she did try to fix it, that this creature would ever be able to live. Much less be a 'weapon of ultimate power' as her grandfather had planned.

"I was only able to do a partial sequence, Doctor," HoloCat spoke from its new spot on top of the console of the tank.

"Why only partial?"

"Well..." HoloCat's avatar collapsed, and the sequence analysis pulled up on the screen. Many of the sections of genetic code were missing from the analysis as if they were intentionally left out. "Much of the genetic code has components that are currently unrecognized and left out of the presented sequence. Additionally, some of the combinations are not currently allowed by the Minnows BioSolutions standard practice of responsible genetic-engineering."

"Stop censoring it, HoloCat, I need to see everything." Calliope stared at the genetic sequence and waited for the missing information to populate. After several moments, and nothing changing, she frowned. "HoloCat?"

"I'm sorry Doctor, I need further administrative permissions to display the rest of the information." HoloCat smiled at her.

"Wh-I have administrative permissions!"

"I'm sorry, I should clarify. I need secondary administrative permissions, by either another senior researcher or another department head of Minnows BioSolutions to-"

"JAY!" Calliope spun around to shout at her coworker. He was still engrossed in the different projects available here. "I need you to give me your admin access!"

"Just do whatever she wants, HoloCat!" Jay shouted back over his shoulder, his eyes not leaving the computer screen. "And Cal, when you get a minute... I think you need to see this.."

"If its more 'super cool' stuff I'm not interested." Calliope kept her sight on HoloCat's screen. The reloaded version of the analysis was taking its time, and HoloCat's screen doubled in length to accommodate the results.

"Actually," This time Jay finally turned to look at her with a creased brow. "I think this is more in the realm of messed up, family related stuff. Your family, I mean."

"Any more messed up then my grandfather turning himself into a cyborg as a way to achieve immortality?"

"Well, if I'm reading this right, your grandpa isn't your grandpa. He's your father and you're a test tube baby. Possibly with some clones running around somewhere."

Calliope kept looking at the analysis for a moment longer and realized that Jay was making no sense. She slowly turned to consider him.

"...What?" She said after a moment to collect herself. Did he just say she had clones somewhere? Calliope left HoloCat to load up the new updated results and stepped up to Jay and the terminal. That couldn't be right. Her parents had died when she was too young to remember them, and her grandfather took her home and raised her as his own.

But then again, that's what her grandfather had told her. And if today proved anything, it proved that grandpa Gero wasn't above lying.

"HC, go ahead and read the summary of Project Heiress," Jay spoke to his own digital assistant.

"Okay!" Jay's HoloCat spoke in the same chipper tones as Calliope's own, "The purpose of this project was the germination of possible offspring capable of carrying on Dr. Gero's work after his death, should he eventually die. This project was completed with assistance from Dr. Spring, a fertility and family genetics expert. After a viable subject was developed, she was cloned several times, and Dr. Spring performed a number of genetic therapies in an attempt to enhance choice traits. Out of the eight viable cloned subjects, and single original, 4 survived to full term. Two were found to be too mentally deficient for the intended purpose and were allowed to go with the ovum donor. One showed instances of mental disturbances and was terminated. One subject was fit for the purposes of the project, and was turned over to Dr. Gero at 36 months."

Which would explain why he slipped up and called her 'daughter' during his video will, Calliope thought. He knew she would find out soon enough. She crossed her arms and held a thoughtful expression for a few moments. What possible good could knowing this do?

"Okay." She said simply. Jay was giving her another sympathetic look, leaning on his knees with his elbows. There was one thing she wanted to know. "Am I the original, or am I a clone?"

"Subject designated Clio was the original of the nine. She is listed as deceased. Cause of death was attributed to structural abnormalities of the heart after gene therapy." This HoloCat answered readily.

"So I'm a clone."

"Yes, Dr. Merriweather."

That should be the last surprise of the day, Calliope was sure of it. It was a major revelation of her origins. Another lie that her grandfather. Dad? Granddad-Dad. Had built her world on. But why would he lie about this?

Oh right, the illegal cloning experiments.

"Okay." Calliope nodded, mostly to herself, and moved to brace her hands on her hips. She shifted on her feet, uncomfortable with how much this day had revealed. Deep breath in, and out. She found her voice sounded flat. "Okay, yeah. Great. Do you have an ETA on getting any communications out?"

"Cal, seriously?" Jay stared at her, and again sounded shocked, "You just found out that you're a clone! How are you not freaking out about that? I mean- That's just crazy! It's crazy!" He threw his hands up, "This whole place is out of a sci-fi novel! You're a clone! Your grandfather-dad made not only killer robots but some kind of genetically-engineered super soldier! How can you not freak out about this?!"

Calliope kept a level gaze with Jay, a stern expression on her face as if she was at a budget meeting. She wasn't sure what was worse. Her tech support, her grandfather-dad's lies, the monster-baby, or being trapped.

"Because Jay," Calliope spoke between gritted teeth, and a touch of sarcasm. "Because if I start freaking out now I am going to burn this place to the ground!" the last part she found herself screaming, her composure once again lost.

She grabbed a nearby table, and after a couple of tries flipped it and the spare parts over. Half-ranting she moved to smack things off the other nearby desks and shouted to the ceiling. "Because grandpa or dad or what the Hell ever decided 'Oh well I guess my plans for taking over the world didn't work out! Better clone myself up a bunch of daughters and only raise one and lie to her for her whole life so that when I get myself killed she has so many things to talk to a therapist about!'"

"Yeah! That's super great! Awesome job grandpa! A plus work! Absolutely stunning!" Calliope had picked up another spare part from a desk, it looked like some kind metal replacement for bone, and hurled it upwards to the ceiling.

It was, at that moment when the spare part clattered against the ceiling, that a loud rumble gave a small shake to the lab. This was enough to snap Calliope out of her ramble. She and Jay, who stood upright from the computer, stared up at the hatch. There was the unmistakable glow of sunlight from the above the ladder.

"Hello?" Jay spoke up, without a second thought. 


	4. Time Travel is Dumb

Chapter 3: Time Travel is Dumb

There was a suspicious lack of a response from up the ladder. But Calliope swore she caught the faintest sound of muttering and whispers from up that way.

"Hello?" A voice called down, it sounded like it could belong to a young man. "Is someone down there?"

'Holy crap someone actually came'. This was the first thought to come to Calliope's mind. No one should have known they were there. There was no way to contact rescue response teams, no way to let her team know where they were. Hell, she hadn't even let anyone aside from Jay know where she was going in the first place.

"Yeah, there is!" Calliope shouted back up and felt a bit dumb. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect from any visitor to this particular location. She felt it was safe to assume that, whatever they were here for, involved her grandfather-dad's work. She followed up while wincing. "And in the interest of full disclosure, we haven't had anything to do with the research OR experiments conducted on these premises!"

Another beat of silence.

"Uh, say, is it alright if we come down there?" A different voice called down this time.

With Calliope's reluctant consent, their visitors were on their way down the ladder. There were two of them; a short, bald man in some kind of orange gi, the other a purple-haired young man that didn't look much older than herself.

"You know, we weren't really expecting to find anyone down here." The shorter of the two said good-naturedly, with a sheepish smile as he looked between Calliope and Jay.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't really expecting to be here today at all." Calliope awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. She had a growing sense of embarrassment, she knew she would likely have some explaining to do. But then again, so did these guys. "Much less trapped in the basement lab."

"I don't mean to be rude, but what are you two doing here?" The other one spoke up now, all business and with a hint of urgency. He had a much more intense gaze and looked at them like he was sizing up a potential threat. "Do you know where you are?"

"Yeah, about that..." Calliope was trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. Looking around at the lab, she couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't make her sound crazy.

"Oh my god, dude, where do I start!"Jay immediately picked up the conversation when she hesitated. He was more then eager to talk about the day's events. "Today has been absolutely insane! This place has so much crazy stuff!-"

"That we had no part in building or programming!" Calliope put up her hands and tried to cut in. The situation needed a delicate explanation.

"And I'm pretty sure those were freaking cyborgs that we saw coming in!" Jay had continued, and they were beginning to talk loudly over each other.

"We didn't know anything about what was going on here before today.-"

"-I thought we were coming here to take her grandfather to a nursing home!"

"Wait, you guys knew Doctor Gero?" The shorter of the two interrupted them, surprised. The men shared a knowing look between themselves. He continued carefully after a moment, both now looking at Calliope. "That... Wouldn't make you Miss Gero, would it?"

"Doctor," Calliope answered immediately, out of habit, and with a touch of annoyance. She frowned, worried these two might know a bit more about her grandfather-dad then the average person. They knew enough to find the lab. Enough to know of Doctor Gero. It still made her want to cringe to have to explain her association. "And it's Merriweather. Doctor Merriweather... But to answer your question, yes. Doctor Gero was my grand-... Well, actually my dad, as it turns out.."

"Yeah he threw us down here and we've been, kinda, trapped all day," Jay spoke up again. He had a tendency towards oversharing. She would have preferred to be able to explain everything in her own time.

"All day? But then... Oh.." The taller of the two trailed off and winced to himself.

"Ooh, geez. Yeah, that may have also been partially our fault.." The other continued sheepishly. "We thought it was just Doctor Gero and the androids that were here. We would've let you guys out if we knew you were down here... Sorry about that."

Calliope stared blankly at the two and tried to figure out what exactly they were talking about. She frowned and decided to ask some questions herself. "Hold on, you were HERE. Earlier today? Who the Hell are you guys?" Where these the guys that her granddad-dad had warned her were coming?

They didn't radiate threatening as far as she could tell. The short one was was even kind of likable.

"Well.." The shorter one started, and it seemed it was his turn to try and explain something unbelievable. "How much do you know of what he was doing here?"

"I know he wasn't retired like he said he was." Calliope frowned and crossed her arms. So this is what today was going to be. Explaining her father's activities over and over again. "Suffice to say he was... Continuing with his research."

"You're right, he has been." The purple-haired one started, having regained his composure he tried to explain urgently. "Your father, Doctor Gero, he's created a series of androids. They called themselves 17 and 18. We were here trying to stop him from activating them earlier, but we failed... We weren't able to stop them, and they were able to get away."

"Well, where are they?" Calliope jumped in and was concerned about what might be going on in the outside world. She had spent most of her time trying to figure out the plans for the creature in the tank. But she had seen enough about he androids designated 17 and 18 to know that they were quite dangerous in their own right. Dangerous enough that the senior Gero made sure to highlight notes not only about how powerful they were but also their tendencies towards violence. She was explicitly told in several places in the notation to stay far away if they were ever activated. "Are they out there killing people?"

"We don't know." Purple hair shook his head. He continued in a dire tone, "Unfortunately, there IS another problem."

"Is it more androids?" There were notes about other androids designated 16, and 19. Calliope did not enjoy the way this conversation was going.

"Not exactly... It's a bit hard to explain." Purple hair looked like he was struggling with a thought, and his eyes searched the lab before stopping on something in the back. He pointed, and Calliope glanced back to realize he was gesturing to he growth thank. Or more likely, what was inside it. "I'm pretty sure it's that... But a version of it that's from the future."

Calliope needed a moment to digest that explanation. She stared at the stranger skeptically but gave a few small nods. After dealing with Jay for a time, she had adopted a certain way of engaging people who were sharing insane theories.

"The future." She confirmed, the disbelief leaking into her voice. "And you're sure about that?"

"Yes!" He said defensively, "Its come back in time to absorb the androids. If its able to reach its final form, it will put the whole planet in danger!"

"Why did it come back from the future?" Jay asked innocently enough and shrugged when everyone looked at him. He was handling the stranger parts of this conversation surprisingly well. "If the future it's from is similar enough to have a monster baby, it would have to have a 17 and 18 in the future too, right?"

"There were a 17 and 18 where it's from, but they were destroyed." The short man confirmed and gestured to his friend. "Trunks here is actually from the future too. The androids pretty much destroyed everything in his time, and he came back to try and warn us so we'd stand a chance." He looked between Jay, who was eating up every detail, and Calliope, who was still staring with incredulity. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's all true. I swear."

It took several minutes for the story to become clearer. Trunks and Krillin, the short one as they learned, explained their story. It did sound crazy, especially hearing it clarified. But, Calliope had to remind herself, it did seem to be the theme of the day. Jay helpfully filled in their side of the story, and some of the things they had found in their time there.

"Okay... So this 'Cell' guy. Which is such a dumb name, by the way. You're telling me that's the mature, homicidal form of that? From the future." Calliope had paced around the lab a bit and was currently in front of the growth tank. She gestured to Lil' Squishy'. "I'm sorry guys, but I don't think that this could hurt anyone. I'd barely call it alive at this point. I mean, look at it."

"Well, Gero did want you to work on Cell." Krillin started, "I mean, it is possible you were able to fix whatever is wrong with him and allow him to, ah, grow up, right?"

"Only if I had completely lost my mind." She snapped right back and had a sick feeling in her stomach. Calliope truly wasn't sure if she'd be able to repair and develop a project as ambitious as this. But with twenty years, the end of days brought by androids, and nothing to lose? She frowned and groaned to herself in horror, "Oooh you stupid... Stupid future-me. Yeah. It would be possible. If I had no other choice."

She didn't want to have to actually accept this new narrative. If it was accurate, then an incredibly dangerous engineered creature was set loose on the world. He would be devouring the local population, and was in the appropriate place and time to reach 'ultimate, unstoppable power'. He was smart enough to brag about himself and to stay out of reach. What had she done? What could she possibly do to right this? This gaggle of fighters' plan was 'try to find Cell', and 'try to train to get stronger and defeat the lot of them'. It sounded ridiculous to her. There had to be a better solution to this.

Calliope had been muttering to herself for several moments, with one

hand wrapped over her forehead. She almost didn't notice Trunks stepping up next to her until he put his hand up, palm parallel with the growth tank.

"What are you doing? No!" Calliope snapped and reached out to grab his arm. The lab didn't need any magic hand fireballs going off in it. She slid herself between the tank and Trunk with a hard look. "I still need a chance to study this thing. It's the closest thing we have to the Cell that's running around eating people. Whatever Cell is now is based on this."

"Are you serious? We can't let this thing live!"

"Oh calm down, I'm not going to." Calliope rolled her eyes and turned back to the console where HoloCat had been waiting. "HoloCat, go ahead and end life support processes sustaining 'Project of Extremely Unethical Means'. Then drain the tank and lower the glass."

This seemed to satisfy Trunks when finally put his hand down. He kept watching this while Calliope continued giving instructions to HoloCat for saving the data they had gathered. The system of tubes around the tank rumbled with liquid as the tank of drained to nothing. The process did not take more than a few minutes.

"What are you going to do with its body?" Trunks eventually asked, after the fluid had drained and the glass was lowered. Calliope had snapped on latex gloves to disconnect the wiring and tubes to the small body.

"I am going to take it back to my lab in Nicky Town." She spoke calmly, concentrating on the sensitive equipment and tissue. She had found a small, portable version of the grow tank not too far from the console. It was filled with a similar liquid as the tank but without any form of life support. The poor thing had already expired by the time she was placing it inside. "It's much better equipped to analyze the genetic makeup and anatomy. Maybe there's something I can find out about it that'll help."

"Are you sure its safe to go back to Nicky Town?" Krillin spoke up from a nearby table, where Jay had been showing him the schematics for the targeted androids. "Last we saw of Cell he was in Ginger Town, and we lost track of him. He could be anywhere in the region."

"Yeah, I gotta agree with him, Cal." Jay nodded, as excited about seeing everything he also had a panicked look. The situation kept getting worse. "Once we're out we can get out we can call the lab and get them to evacuate. You can study Lil' Squishy at the auxiliary site while avoiding getting eaten by Big Squishy."

Calliope frowned at Jay. It was a risk to keep their team at the main lab, and she wanted to prevent any further deaths if she could. On the other hand, much of the auxiliary site's equipment was older, and she would be faced with the scrutiny of her peers. How was she supposed to explain something like this?

"Dammit, you're right. I'll have to call to have them evacuate. We should head out, Jay." She had to think about her team, getting them to safety was a priority. The whole area would need to be evacuated, too. Calliope knew she'd need to figure out how bad it was out there. She started gathering her things together, while speaking to their new friends, "If there's anything you guys see in here that you can use, you're welcome to it. I'll need to remember to clean this place up later..."

"How about these schematics for the androids?" Krillin held up the plans, giving them a look over again. "I know someone who might be able to make sense of them. See if the androids have any weaknesses."

"If it helps, sure. Either Cell needs to be eliminated or the two androids do." Calliope nodded and made sure to gather several more things from the lab. There were some things here she was going to try and make use of.

"Preferably all of them." Trunks grumbled at first, "We should be on our way too."

The group made their way out of the basement lab. Calliope tried to temper her shock at seeing what was the upper lab completely leveled. An entire section of the mountain was completely decimated.

"If you guys need me, or have any more information, let me know." She said and offered the two her business card before they said brief goodbyes. It was comforting, knowing there was a gaggle of fighters were aware of the situation. She would have liked to think they were well-equipped to deal with this kind of situation. She would have been more comforted if they knew where either Cell or the androids' whereabouts.

Once they found a sufficiently flat piece of ground, Jay pulled their ship back out of his pocket. The two got settled back in, with their newfound cargo tucked in the back. They sat in stunned silence for several minutes, while the day's events sank in.

"Holy shit. Just... Holy shit..." Jay muttered and could do little more then grip the wheel at that moment. Calliope shared the sentiment.

The day was piling on the challenges for them. Calliope felt that she was seeing a series of escalating disasters, and they were snowballing together. It was currently heading towards an absolute catastrophe if these creations were left to their own devices. Her biggest concern was that the warriors that her father took on as enemies would not be able to resolve the situation on their own.

But her father left her with knowledge and tools that she otherwise wouldn't have had. It was a hell of an inheritance. There had to be something in all the information she could use.

"Okay, we got this." She said eventually, trying to encourage both Jay and herself to collect themselves. She took a few deep breaths and tried to prioritize her next actions. One thing at a time. First, she had to get her team to begin evacuations. Pulling her HoloCat back up, she was happy to see the red frowny face was gone. They had satellite communications, at least. "HoloCat, how's our connection?"

"We were able to reconnect to the network!" HoloCat said with excitement. "Would you like me to send an email to your senior researches explaining that we're on our way back?"

"Skip that, call Doctor Belfast." Calliope looked over to Jay and leaned over to smack his arm. "Jay! Get us in the air! We gotta get back to the lab!" Jay managed to snap out of his trance to start the ship. While he was taking off, her HoloCat had an additional telephone icon over its head as it connected the call. The call connected immediately, and Calliope winced at the voice on the other end.

" _Merriweather, where the Hell are you?_ " The gruff voice on the other end was raised in controlled anger. Doctor Belfast usually sounded some level of angry.

"Belfast, I had a family emergency to deal with. I'm on my way back now, shouldn't be more than an hour." She tried to explain in the calm, chilled professional voice she had developed over the years.

" _Maybe tell me next time. Is everything okay with your family?_ " Belfast was a bit calmer, though it did not sound like it was a good day for him.

"It's fine." He didn't need to know the details, and Belfast wasn't the kind of man to press. "Listen, I need you to begin getting the lab evacuated, okay?"

" _Evacuated? Goddammit, you haven't been listening to the news, have you?_ " Belfast wasn't like most of her staff, he was harder to shake. She always respected him for that, but it was proving a frustration. " _There have been a few isolated instances of attacks. The news doesn't have enough information to say there's a genuine threat. Hell, the local government has issued a statement telling people not to worry, at this time. We do not need to evacuate_."

"Belfast, you don't understand, its-"

" _You don't understand Merriweather. Now, I know you're still pretty green in terms of leadership, so let me explain. An evacuation of this facility would displace our people, and cause undue hardship on samples and supplies that we would need to bring with us. It would cost too much time and money. If the situation changes, we will re-evaluate our options._ "

"Seriously, Belfast? I'm still head of the board, I say evacuate. Get the nerds evacuated!"

" _You're also not here right now. We can see how things are when you're back_."

The call ended before Calliope could get another word out. The conversation went about as well as she expected it to. Belfast, also called Salty Dog, was old enough and had seen enough, that it would take something significant to get him to back down. Fine, they would do it the hard way. She called up HoloCat and directed an email go to the full staff list of Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town, and dictated a high-priority message.

"Due to conditions that I believe include a threat to life and limb, I am calling for this site to evacuate. While this is not a mandatory evacuation as ordered by the local emergency offices, I believe taking preemptive action is imperative." She needed them ready to go. If even half the people followed her instructions and began preparations to move, it would save valuable time. She added at the end, as an afterthought, "Please ignore Doctor Belfast if he tries to tell you to stay put at this time. I know he is a senior researcher and a very scary man, but please continue organizing for evacuation."

Next, they needed to organize for transportation to get everyone to their auxiliary site near the capital. Calliope realized that perhaps Belfast was right, she was still inexperienced in this kind of situation. She scrambled to try and remember who she needed to delegate certain responsibilities to in this situation. Transportation out being the most pressing. Belfast and herself were responsible for making sure their team and essential supplies were evacuated safely.

"The rest of the area isn't evacuating either," Jay said worriedly, the full weight of the threats finally reaching him.

"And if we go running around saying there are currently killer robots on the loose, and a Genetically-engineered super soldier from the future eating people, I doubt people will believe us." Calliope felt

the weight of the responsibility on her as well. She was searching through HoloCat's evacuation protocols to try to make sure everything was covered. If the right people were doing what they needed to, and following the order to evacuate, it should be handled automatically. "Oh dammit. Belfast is supposed to be on transportation."

"... I think I might have a way to get people to evacuate..." Jay mentioned hesitantly.

"How?" She was willing to consider almost anything at this point.

"Well. Okay, first off, you cannot tell anyone about this. Like ever. And I need you to promise me there will be no repercussions for myself or my department." He was suddenly quite serious. This was a side of Jay she had not seen before. She never had the chance to see him in a real emergency situation before. Calliope nodded fiercely and agreed before Jay would continue. "The nuclear power plant, the one on the outskirts of Nicky Town? If we can get in there and override the security protocols, we can make the computer think that the reactor core is going into meltdown. The security system will automatically alert local authorities, it should cause not only Nicky Town but the surrounding 10-miles to evacuate."

"Seriously? Fake a meltdown?" Calliope asked, stunned. Jay looked somewhat crestfallen. The more she thought about it, however, the more it seemed an option. The threat of radioactive fallout would light a fire under Belfast, and get their people to safety. She nodded then, "Okay. Can you do it?"

"Me? No. No.." Jay immediately laughed nervously. "But I got a guy... Our help desk guy. Nash."

"Nash. Creepy Nash." Nash was the reason Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town no longer allowed its employees to wear their hoodies up in the building. They were still trying to find that tarantula in the server room.

"Yeah, there were some things that he did not include on his resume. He apparently had a long history of the criminal hacking sort. Banks, government data banks, stuff like that."

"Oh really?" She tilted her head and gave Jay a hard look. She didn't like the idea of a hacker having full access to their system.

"He promised me he was done with that life unless it was for the greater good!" Jay tried to defend his decisions. "He helped redesigned our security protocols, it was a good hire."

Now wasn't the time to question hiring choices of her department head. Calliope had to remind herself that there was more at stake. This was something she could revisit later.

"Do it. Get him on it." Calliope agreed before she could think about it too long. It was best to get the ball rolling on this. There was a predator on the loose, and her nerds were potential prey.

"Seriously?" Jay laughed again, this time in disbelief. He pulled up his own HoloCat while shaking his head. "Never thought you'd actually agree. Hey HoloCat, go ahead and put me through to Help Desk at Minnows."

" _This is Help Desk. What'd you break?_ " A very bored, tired sounding voice picked up on the other line.

"Nash, its Jay."

" _Oh hey, Boss. What's up._ "

"Nash, dude, I need you to stop playing video games, and get ready, because some shit is going down."

" _I'm not playing video games, Boss._ " Nash interrupted, his voice remaining flat, " _Big Boss Lady sent an email out, we're supposed to be evacuating. I'm making sure the data is backed up to offshore servers. Also, Salty Dog was looking for you earlier. He is REAL upset about you going AWOL._ "

"Cool, good, yeah. I need you to get someone else on the backup. I have a special project for you." Jay leaned in close to whisper, "We got a code black. I repeat. _Code black._ "

"... _You serious, Boss?_ " Nash's voice dropped to a whisper as well, and Calliope almost missed what he said. " _What do you need me to do_?"

"You remember our conversation a few weeks back? Go backdoor on the rainmaker. We need a Ghost Storm. Ghost. Storm."

" _I'm on it, Boss,_ " Nash spoke in a severe tone now, which was odd to hear.

Calliope watched the whole exchange, fascinated in the interaction by her tech staff. She had had no idea that they had any kind of system of codes. They may have a reputation for being weird and creepy, but they were proving to be a great help in these trying times.

"Ghost storm?" Calliope teased after IT wrapped up their conversation. "Really?"

"Yes." Jay nodded confidently, and then quickly explained, "To fake a meltdown. Cause, y'know, there's radioactive fallout after a meltdown. Ghost storm, like a storm that isn't really there."

"Yeah, I get it. How long will it take for him to do it?" She grew more serious now.

"If it goes according to plan." Because of course, this was something that they had discussed before. Enough to have a plan of action and code words. Like they were straight out of a comic book. "Hmm, maybe an hour?" Jay continued after noticing Calliope's maintained stare. He caved in after a few moments to explain, "Nash has a buddy that works as an engineer at the plant. He will be able to get Nash in, where he can access their system and fake the meltdown."

"Why would you guys have something like this planned?" She found her self-asking.

"It's not my plan! Its Nash's plan! But honestly, I think this is exactly the kind of situation that crazy plans like this are for!" Jay said in a rushed, stressed way. He paused to take a deep breath to calm himself, "He's the kind of guy who thinks the world is going to end every other week. He has emergency plans for, just, so many things."

Calliope left the conversation there. It was something she'd have to have a meeting with Jay and Nash about, she was sure of that. She set her mind back to the threats currently loose upon the world.

"Okay, so is there anything else from the research we can use?" She brought up the list of documents they had gathered from the basement lab, intent to try and find something, anything. Calliope was growing restless, and the trip back to Nicky Town would still take time. When they arrived they would know whether or not Nash's plan worked. The sirens of the nuclear power plant were hard to mistake.

Calliope rearranged the files, the most relevant ones at the top. 'Project of Extremely Unethical Means (aka Cell), 17, 18.' These were the ones that she focused on for now. Cell, she wouldn't be able to do much about him without the equipment to analyze the remains she had collected. 17 and 18, she took another look at their files. Occasionally she muttered to herself, thoughts and random facts. There didn't seem to have a remote shut down that she could use. There had been the literal remote that the senior Gero had to deactivate them with. There wasn't even a way to communicate with them that she could find. Even if they were dangerous, it could help to be able to warn them of Cell.

But what about the other android, #16? That one had gone with the others?

"Hey HoloCat, look over everything on the android designated 16." Calliope was searching the file herself for what she was looking for. "I want to know if there is any kind of way to track or communicate with it."

"Okay!" HoloCat's screen full of information began to flash all the files on Android 16, analyzing for her request. It took several minutes before it chirped up again, "Android 16 was also built with specifications meant to deter tracking." Damn, there goes that. "But it was built with a long-range communications radio!" Well, that was something.

"Oh, well, can you get a call through to it?"

"I can try!" HoloCat's screen collapsed to bring the blob avatar back, and again it had the telephone icon. A minute passed, almost two when HoloCat pouted. "I'm sorry, Doctor Merriweather, I wasn't able to get a call through. It is possible Android 16 is out of range, or otherwise unable to receive communications."

Perhaps it was just as well, Calliope wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the androids. According to Krillin and Trunks, 17 was the one who actually ended up killing the senior Gero. 16 was never an android Trunks had dealt with in the future even. It was within the realm of possibilities that they may target her if given the chance.

'Hey, remember that Doctor Gero guy you killed earlier today? I'm his daughter and there's a monster from the future to eat you.' That would be a weird thing to say to someone. Calliope didn't want to come off as weird.

"Dammit. Okay. Keep trying to contact it ever five minutes. Let me know if you can get through." Calliope sighed to herself. In the time she spent trying to figure anything out about the androids, they had almost arrived back at the labs. "And if you connect, and I'm not able to take the call... Just... I don't know, keep them on the line. Maybe try to explain who I am. Use my login credentials from the Gero mainframe if you need to."

Below, it was clear that it was business-as-usual for those down in Nicky Town. There was no sound of sirens or any form of pandemonium. Didn't these people know they were in danger? Calliope began to worry that Nash's plan had outright failed.

"Well, nothing yet," Calliope said dismally once they had landed in the empty lot behind the Minnows BioSolutions lab.

"There's still time," Jay spoke up as they began slowly towards the lab's back door. "Nash would call if something had gone wrong."

Calliope had stopped short of the door, the containment unit with Lil' Squishy wrapped up in her sweater vest. She didn't want anyone seeing this, and asking questions when they finally entered. She would need a great degree of secrecy when working on this special project. There was so much ethically and legally wrong with this project that trying to explain it was too daunting a task.

After all that she learned that day, it was difficult to return to the safe, clean lab that was now effectively her home.

"Cal?" Jay had stopped at the door and was watching her. He was carrying the other

box, sealed, full of the other research and technologies they had taken from the basement lab.

"Yeah. I'm coming." She sighed but didn't move. Nicky town sounded alive around them with the quiet pace of everyday life. Calliope found herself turning to look around at the neighborhood. It was a beautiful summer day. The burden in her arms was starting to grow heavy.

The sound started quietly at first but quickly grew to be almost deafening. The loud, low sound of the nuclear power plant warning of a meltdown.

Calliope breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

"Let's go get these nerds evacuated!" She said with a sudden burst of enthusiasm and purpose. It was time to get her people to safety.

Inside the lab, there was a chaos, the air was tense and electric. People in lab coats rushed to and fro between offices and lab stations. Their own usual calm, cool composure was broken. Where normally the noise level was quite low, there was a general worried chatter. Calliope's own HoloCat confirmed with a terrified wail and red glow the official report. There was now a mandatory evacuation order for Nicky Town, as well as the rest of the ten-miles around the power plant.

Calliope observed the sealed labs, one on each side with walls of glass, as she strode up the hallway to the main lab. There were researchers in the clean rooms there, rushing to package the most important samples. Jay split off to deliver the case to her office, and then to ensure his own department prepared.

"Merriweather! Jesus tap-dancing Christ, it's about time you got back." Doctor Belfast spoke gruffly through the intercom of the clean room to the left when Calliope passed by to go to the main lab area. He was a tall, well-built man. His age showed in his neat white beard, and the creases in his face.

"Has transportation out of here been arranged yet?" Calliope spoke long enough through the intercom on her side. In this chaotic environment, she had found a peaceful state of mind. There was a plan of action to follow. Get their stuff. Get her people out.

"not yet, gotta get this inventory packaged and- Terry! We're not taking any equipment!" Belfast had spotted one of the researchers trying to pack something and chided them loudly, "The aux lab will have equipment terry. Put it down!"

"Get it arranged, Belfast, I'll take over for you in there in a minute," Calliope said in a calm, clear voice. First, she needed to drop off Lil' Squishy in her office. "We need to get these people, and their families, out of here and airborne in the next twenty minutes."

The evacuation passed in a rush of activity, packing, and hustling her employees along. Calliope managed to keep a calm, steady show for her people. A crying teenage girl was the last thing they needed. If she could keep herself cool and collected, she hoped to remind them, so could they.

Two cargo ships collected the employees and their families that had gathered to the lab. Many people who didn't have alternate transportation out made it on as well. All the doors to the labs were secured. All the most important samples and materials were taken with the scientists. Only two researchers broke down crying. Overall, it was a smooth, successful evacuation.

The lab stood silent, the siren of the power plant muffled only just. Its slanted ceiling made of glazed glass let in the sunshine like a glow. The nervous energy was gone with the other researchers. Calliope stood in the silence and spared herself a moment to take it in with a degree of pride.

Her people were off to safety, and she was alone. She always got more work done alone.


	5. Ethical Gray Areas

Chapter 4: Ethical Gray Areas

~Somewhere On the Road~

Android 16 frowned to himself.

There was a call attempting to connect a line to the specific frequency his internal radios were tuned to. It was a secure line, and one would have to use the proper protocols to even be able to attempt a connection. The origin of the contact was missing. It lacked the required security measures.

He declined the connection.

Five minutes later, a similar ping to his radio came through. This time the request came with security credentials from Doctor Gero's mainframe. The profile belonged to the daughter, she was registered as Calliope Gero. Her permissions had been modified since the last time he had been connected with the mainframe. But the permissions were authentic. She now had the correct security clearances that his system needed to allow the connection. This was not entirely surprising. With Gero dead, Calliope would have inherited anything he left behind. If there was anything else left behind, at this point aside from himself, and technically 17 and 18.

16 was left, more or less, to his own devices in the back of the van they had taken. 17 and 18 occupied the front seats, and they were currently bickering about what route would be best to take. The van occasionally shook and swerved as it dodged around slower drivers. They were on a 'road trip' to find and kill Goku. 17 was not the most careful driver.

16 considered the ill will his companions had with Doctor Gero senior. Calliope had no involvement with their creation. He doubted that the siblings would care. In the interest of keeping the younger Gero safe, 16 answered on silent internal systems. She was, after all, categorized as an ally in his systems. She would be 17 later this year, earned her doctorate, worked in the field of genetics.

" _-Please respond! This is an automated message addressed to android designated 16 from... Oh! Hello_!" A cheerful voice was on the other end. It was wasn't human, 16 knew right away. Its inflection hinted at another artificial intelligence. " _Is this Mr. Android 16?_ "

"You are not Dr. Gero."

" _My name is HoloCat!_ " The other quickly replied, " _I am the personal device assigned to Doctor Calliope Merriweather! Doctor Merriweather requested that I attempt to make contact with an android designated 16!"_

"I am Android 16." His system did have an additional note on her file. She had changed her name. It was a smart decision.

" _Oh! That's excellent! Would you mind if I placed you on a brief hold to connect this line to Doctor Merriweather?_ "

"That would be fine." He wondered how she had figured out how to contact him. The laboratory was nothing but rubble now. To his knowledge Calliope was neither involved in, or aware of, her father's work.

Several moments passed. 16 waited to be connected, the hold music was a smooth jazz tune. When the music cut, it was HoloCat that greeted him again.

" _I'm sorry Mr. Android 16, it turns out Doctor Merriweather is not available at the moment._ " HoloCat said in an apologetic, but still quite cheerful voice, " _All staff of Minnows BioSolutions are currently complying with a mandatory evacuation order issued by the local government_!"

"Why are they evacuating? Are they in danger?"

" _There was a nuclear meltdown at the Shine nuclear power plant 3 miles away! Since Nicky Town resides within the 10-mile exclusion zone, authorities have called for a mandatory evacuation! Minnows BioSolutions has activated evacuation protocols, and will be en route to their designated Auxiliary site within 15 minutes!_ "

"Is Doctor Merriweather aware and evacuating to safety?"

" _She sure is! Doctor Merriweather confirmed knowledge of the event, and will be busy with evacuating until departure! Minnows BioSolutions is proud of the high standard of safety and ethical codes that we adhere to! Would you like me to confirm her evacuation with you once she has arrived at the designated safe location?_ "

"I would like that, thank you HoloCat." 16 smiled gently to himself. He did not have many experiences with other artificial beings, outside of 17 and 18, but HoloCat was nice.

" _I will set up an automated message that will alert you when we reach safety! Bye bye, Mr. Android 16!_ "

"Goodbye HoloCat."

"Hey 16!" 17 called from the driver's seat. 16 had been so engrossed with his own conversation that he had missed the entire argument his companions had gotten into. "Left or right?"

16 saw his two companions looking back at him expectantly. He leaned forward enough to see the road ahead. They had stopped at a crossroad, the afternoon sun was beginning to sink to the horizon before them. They were supposed to be trying to find Goku's home. 16's system checked their current position and determined the best route.

"You should take the road on the left." He answered simply.

"Hah! I told you!" 18 laughed as she turned to flop back into her seat, then kicked her heels up on the dashboard.

"Oh shut up, sis." 17 pulled the van to the left and begrudgingly began down the road again.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

The first priority on Calliope's to-do list was getting some eyes in the sky. Since the population had evacuated there would be few ways to tell if trouble was approaching. There would be no screaming civilians, no police sirens, no worried co-workers that spent too much of their work day on news sites and social media to warn her. This wasn't helped by the sirens. The same sirens that were so sweet to hear at first were now giving her a headache, and a general sense of anxiety. After the first several minutes she had shoved earplugs in her ears to try and prevent going deaf and mad.

It was lucky Jay had the thought to bring back so many things from the sub-lab because they were 'just too freaking cool' to be left behind. Among the collection brought back were the small robotic bugs her father had used to collect genetic material. There were a dozen that had been stored in the lab, sealed and ready to be activated. Calliope had cleared her desk clean of any trace of her normal day-to-day, and carefully laid out this piece of her inheritance.

Holding one upon her palm, Calliope held it up for examination. While they held up the illusion of being insects from a distance, on closer examination she could clearly see the delicate mechanical build. They were beautiful if you could overlook the ethical implications of their intended use. But the mouthparts looked like many small needle-like. Those antennae must have been used for radio communication. Were those little eyes hiding little cameras?

"Hey, HoloCat!" She had to talk loudly to be able to hear herself over the din of the siren. "See if you can sync up with these little bug-spybot-drone-things!"

Calliope had pushed her chair from the desk and stood. She had too much nervous energy driving her to sit. If she sat down she felt as if she wouldn't be able to get back up. It would give her too much of a chance to think about the day so far.

"Okay!" Text read out over HoloCat's head in a little word bubble. She had set it to mute after hearing its attempt to yell over the ambient noise. It sounded like a child happily yelling at her. "Would you like me to activate all 12 of the 'little bug-spybot-drone-things'?"

"Yes! All of them!" Calliope kept watching the one in her palm for any sign of movement. She held her breath as a few moments passed, and breathed with relief when the little legs twitched to life. The tiny spybot moved back and forth, and its ladybug-like wings fluttered as if it was running a start-up test. The rest of the little bugs on her desk did a similar start-up dance and flutter. "Do these have a video feed?!"

"They do!"

"I want eight of them to be deployed around this location, keep them patrolling 1-2 miles out! The other four I want to be deployed similarly but focused on the immediate surrounding of the labs." She needed to take a breath after talking so loudly so long. They needed to know what to look for. Calliope tried to think of a simple way to explain what she had been described to her, what the drones needed to be looking for. "HoloCat I want to monitor the video feeds, and alert me if you find the subject we're calling 'Cell'! The subject will be approximately six to seven feet tall, green with spotted pattern, bipedal, tail approximately four to six feet long, with needle-like tip! The subject will not match any known description of animal life!" She took another breath, "Set alert to highest priority. Unmute if an alert comes through."

It took only a few minutes to set the drones to their task. The small horde fluttered to life with her directive and rose as one. They were so eager in their surveillance duty that the first few bumped against the glass of her office window. They bumbled just like real insects would, and kept trying to fly through the glass until she opened the window for them. Out they flew and dispersed to their assigned duties.

Calliope didn't waste time watching them fly off. She trusted her father's technologies to be of quality, and she trusted HoloCat's programming to keep her informed. It was time to prepare some form of protection for herself. The lab kept supplies in their stock room that was also used in their research site 20 miles to the east, where her goats lived. Mega Goats. They were the first successful genetic engineering project in her professional life. Larger then goats or cows, with a mild temperament, with higher-quality meat and protein-rich milk.

While she did not think of herself as a violent person, this was the kind of situation where she needed a gun. Even if it was only full of goat tranquilizers. Even if it may not come to much use against the threats this day had revealed. Calliope collected the black rifle they used out on the goats when they needed to be sedated. She gave it a

quick inspection, ensured all the parts were sound. Gero had shown her how to care for and use, firearms when she was much younger. She had been comfortable handling them for years. She slung its strap over her shoulder and gathered a box of the tranquilizer darts without a second thought.

It did not take long to ensure the gun was taken apart, cleaned, put back together. Calliope loaded it with enough tranquilizer to take down an 800-pound mega goat. She felt better having the rifle on hand, even if it would prove useless. At the very least, if there were any looters they would get a nasty surprise. Hopefully, the site of a gun and a screaming scientist would be enough to deter them.

With the rifle loaded, she strode out of the stock room, down the hall to the main lab, through the doors on the site and up to her office. She spared a moment to change her shoes to the hiking boots she wore when out on the research site with the goats. They were more sturdy footwear, perfect in the event that she had to run.

Calliope had found a moment of hesitation when she stood. Her next task was analyzing 'Lil' Squishy'. There had been no reason for anyone to come into her office during the evacuation so the container was left undisturbed on her couch, still wrapped in her sweater vest. It's just a body, she reminded herself. She had dissected many creatures before this. But none of them were creatures that would grow to be something that would hunt and consume entire populations. 'Think about it as an unprecedented chance to study a very ambitious, very illegal creation.' She forced herself to think over the sirens. Moving the sweater vest off the container, Calliope stared at the creature for a few moments. It looked too innocent and innocuous for what it would grow into.

"Okay. Let's see what you can tell me." Calliope said quietly to herself, her voice drowned out. She slid the rifle's strap back onto her shoulder and hauled the container into her arms. Careful not to lose her grip she made her way out of her office. She managed the security checkpoints, and into the main lab.

She chose a closed lab in the back to take for this secret study. It had computers and some of the most advanced equipment available for analyzing genetic material. There were even several forgotten HoloCat devices scattered about. This was the best place for her to be, Calliope reminded herself. Few people were going to be in the exclusion zone while they believed a nuclear meltdown was happening. The container was left on a clean table, while she gathered necessary supplies for collecting tissue samples and dissection.

Next, in a weak attempt to avoid having the dissection, Calliope collected the other HoloCat devices. On an adjacent table, she arranged them side by side, spaced with room to display larger screens for each of them. She synced them with her own HoloCat device. Her HoloCat's memory and processing power were already being taxed. The additional devices would prove a powerful resource. Surveillance was a top priority, and she had two of the five additional devices dedicated to watching the area.

"You have outstanding alerts!" Calliope caught site of the message on her own HoloCat pop-up and immediately dismissed it. By now her coworkers likely realized that she wasn't among the evacuees, even though she had marked herself off on their team site as such. They were smart people, that's why she hired them, it shouldn't take them long to figure out.

Calliope eyed the creature in the tank, no longer able to avoid this task. She had snapped on a pair of latex gloves, as well as clear safety goggles. Carefully, she opened the containment unit and moved the body to a mat under an especially bright light. Seated at a comfortable stool she took up a scalpel and stared at the small body. This little guy had many structural differences than fetuses she had seen. She couldn't tell what was intentional, and what was a genuine deformity.

"I'm sorry about this." Calliope had lowered the scalpel, not quite ready to begin with her work. She could barely make out her own words as she said them over the siren but still spoke gently to the body. She felt she needed to explain herself. "I know it wasn't supposed to be like this. I know you were expecting me to help fix you... I hope you can understand..."

There. She had said her piece.

She placed a hand on the small chest as if to emphasize the apology.

She snapped her hand back after an instant. Her eyes went wide with shock. She wasn't sure if her sense of touch was fooling her.

Calliope quickly placed two fingers firmly against the middle of its chest and focused. A tiny heartbeat fluttered back against her fingers.

"You're still alive!" She shouted, her cool laboratory composure lost for the moment, "How are you still alive?!"

Before she could stop herself she had dropped the scalpel against the table and was gingerly lifting the small body. She tried to be as careful with it as she could in her sudden panicked state of mind, and placed it back in the containment unit. Its lungs would not be ready for air yet, it needed the faux-amniotic fluid for respiration. The fluid was still well-oxygenated when she had examined the unit before. Her fingers fumbled to activate the limited functions the carrier had. Filter, a system to aerate the liquid, temperature control, a monitor for life signs. It had to be enough for now.

Calliope held her breath and watched him float in the fluid. She didn't look away or dare breath until she saw its little tail twitch. Taking deep breaths, she turned away from the container and its contents. It was still alive. She couldn't dissect a living creature.

"Ooh damn it. Damn it. Damn it." Calliope leaned against the lab station, horrified with herself. Only hours before she had sentence it to death without a second thought. It seemed the obvious decision at the time. Her mind had still been reeling from discovering her father's sins. The rage at her father, who was no longer there to take it, had redirected itself at the project she had inherited. Here in the harsh light of her lab, where she worked tirelessly to foster health and longevity in living things, it did not feel right. She could not bring herself to kill it again.

No wonder her father wanted her on this project. It was everything she already worked to do. To manifest longevity, health, and a functional body. Her father's computers could carry a large amount of the grunt work, but something of this magnitude would still need a human touch.

There was a sour feeling growing in her stomach, and Calliope slipped down to the floor with the growing shame she had for her actions. She had spent her entire professional career focused on improving the world. Modifying crops to be higher yielding and disease resistant, trying to discover what gene therapies could be used against genetic illnesses, and of course, creating a new species of goat.

Even knowing what it became in the future, what it was created to do, Calliope couldn't bring herself to kill it again. She hated herself a little bit for that. She hated herself for having pulled Lil' Squishy off life support in the first place.

He didn't ask to be created from such means. It wasn't right for it to die for the atrocities committed by a future version of himself. In the here and now, this creature was innocent.

She peeled off the gloves, removed her safety goggles, all while trying to focus her breathing. She could normally keep herself calm with controlled breathing but found the exercise lacking the controlled aspect. She was gulping down air in quick, shaky breaths. 'What the Hell am I doing here?' Calliope wandered in a moment of clarity. Her plans suddenly seemed absurd. She should be on her way to a safe location, with her team, organizing them and trying to get them situated. The severity of the situation was enough to make her head spin.

'You're hyperventilating. Calm. Down.' Calliope chided herself and tried to push the newfound anxiety aside. This needed to be brought under control. She had dealt with panic attacks before, her own as well as a few of the more nervous researchers. With a hand on her stomach, she closed her eyes and focused on getting her breathing to slow. In through the nose, out through pursed lips to help slow the movement of air. In 1, 2, 3... Out, 1, 2, 3...

Calliope stayed sitting on the floor, her breathing was again under control. From down here she couldn't see the containment unit for Lil' Squishy, or the split screens of the HoloCat collective as they watched for danger. It was acceptable in this situation, she reasoned with herself, to take a few minutes for herself. Take care of yourself first, she promised herself, and then get back to work.

Was it ever like this for her, or the other clones? She found herself thinking of her own origins. Many of her fellow clones were listed as not surviving the genetic therapies they had undergone. Had Doctor Spring or her father culled those that did not fit the right genetic profile? Calliope had not the time to review the files in depth yet. But, with the experiments they were subjected to, it was likely they had been developed to full term, not unlike Cell. In a tank, watched and monitored. Were the others dissected after they were found to be lacking? Is that what they did to poor Terpsichore? She was listed as having been 'terminated' due to mental disturbances. Calliope was certain she was dead. Thalia and Melpomene went to their mother. They were the lucky ones.

"You're fine. You're okay. You're _fine_." She repeated quietly to herself with her eyes shut tight. Eventually, Calliope believed it. "We're fine. We're _totally fine_."

She was not her father. She would not compromise her moral standings even if the world was turning upside down around her. Even if this

tiny creature presented a huge ethical dilemma.

"Alright, yes, we can work with this!" Calliope steeled herself, ready to face up to the day again. She collected her latex gloves and safety goggles from the floor and pulled herself up. Again she seated herself at the stool and gently moved the containment unit directly in front of her. She brought up HoloCat, and gave her directive with a firm voice over the sirens, "HoloCat, I want you to keep an eye on the vital signs for this container! Alert me if anything changes! Give me a current readout!"

"Okay!" The text confirmed over HoloCat before the blob avatar collapsed, allowing the screen of life signs popped up. Calliope watched them, compared them mentally to the vital signs it had in the sub lab. This couldn't be accurate, the heart rate was improved, without external aid. There were still indications of stress to the fetus, but overall its condition was not as critical as before.

He was a tough little guy, that was for sure. She couldn't help but admire that.

Calliope collapsed the readout and laced her fingers together as she stared at Lil' Squishy.

"Alright! So. I guess you're still hanging in there, buddy." She would need to review everything that went into making this guy. According to her father, it was built with the genetic material of the strongest warriors in the galaxy. Considering she had been prepared to cut open and examine the little creature, she felt the need to explain herself, again. "This is a little bit awkward! I suppose I should introduce myself! My name is Doctor Calliope Merriweather!" She was trying to sound professional while also speaking loudly over the ever-present sirens. "I am Doctor Gero's daughter! Or, well, the clone of his daughter! It is a complicated situation..."

She went on to explain the situation at hand. Her father, the androids, the future version of himself that had come back. Calliope apologized again and tried to tell the tiny deaf ears about how she had been caught in an ethically gray area with how to deal with him. She would not kill him, she assured, but she also would not help to improve his genetic situation. She would provide life support and a safe place from those who would seek to do him harm. But she could not proceed with the project as it was originally planned. By the end of the one-sided conversation Calliope felt thoroughly absurd.

Sighing to herself, she knew it was time to get back to work.

She still needed to collect genetic material and examine his internal anatomy. Where she would have done a dissection on the body before, now she decided to make do with an ultrasound scan. Over a couple of hours, she was able to get enough scans to get a good picture of what baby Cell's anatomy was like inside. Then she collected tissue samples, trying to be as non-invasive as possible. This was work she was familiar with, and even though the damn sirens never stopped Calliope was able to find a meditative calm. It almost felt like a regular day at work, minus the sirens, and the nature of the genetic material she was working with. She was blissfully dead to the world.

The samples were processed and given to the computers to analyze. Getting results would take time, of course. In the interim Calliope would have a chance to examine the 'donated' genes that Cell was made of. Mentally, she allowed the term to be used loosely.

She was back on the stool, now swiveled to face the HoloCat collective. All but those dedicated to aerial surveillance were called up with the display the genetic donors to the 'Project of Extremely Unethical Means'. While the original samples of tissue were used to actually create Cell, her father had enough thought to store their genetic analyses on his computer. The HoloCat collective was able to clean up the information for their display, and Calliope was in a scientist's wet dream. If the notes along with this project were correct, much of the genetics she was looking at were alien to Earth. There were many structures she wasn't familiar with. Proteins she wanted to take a closer look. Combinations she had never seen before. It would take years to get a firm grasp on it.

When a call came through on HoloCat, she almost swiped it away with annoyance. She went to see which one of her co-workers or professional contacts were trying to call her. It was about time someone noticed she was gone. Calliope arched an eyebrow at the display that showed '[UNKNOWN NUMBER]'. She sighed at the interruption that she knew she needed to take, and removed the earplugs she had in.

"This is Doctor Merriweather, what can I do for you?!" Calliope tried to speak in the most professional tone she could manage while making her voice loud enough to be heard clearly over the sirens.

" _Ah- Hey Doc, it's Krillin! Bald guy from the lab?_ " Definitely not a work contact. Krillin continued, his voice raised now over the siren as well, " _What's that noise in the background? Is everything okay? The news said Nicky Town had evacuated because there was a nuclear meltdown nearby_!"

"Oh, yeah, that's just the alarm going off at the Shine plant! Don't worry, its cool, there's no meltdown!" At the very least she could tell this guy the truth. "My IT guys were able to fake a meltdown, to try and get people to evacuate this area!"

" _Wait, so you're still in Nicky Town?!_ " Krillin sounded surprised. " _And that was you guys that faked that meltdown_?"

"I am!" Calliope gave no further explanation for her behavior for the time being. "And we did!"

" _Well, don't you think that's a bit dangerous staying put? Cell is still on the loose!_ " He said incredulously as if Calliope was completely unaware that there was a genetically-engineered super soldier running around, eating people and causing havoc. " _We lost track of him at Basil Airport! It's not too far from where you are_!"

"I'm fine, Krillin! This is the best place for me to be!" Calliope had gotten up to stretch her legs, and paced around the lab while carrying on the conversation.

" _Don't you guys have some kind of site you can evacuate to? Wouldn't that be safer?_ " She pinched the bridge of her nose. The last thing she needed was more people potentially being worried about her well-being.

"Look, I appreciate where you're coming from!" Calliope started, trying not to sound annoyed. "But I have those bug-drone things Gero was using to spy on you guys monitoring the area! Are you guys going to be around this phone?! If it makes you feel better I can set my system to automatically call you guys if they catch sight of Cell!"

" _Oh wow, you were able to re-purpose those? That'll be great if they can find Cell!... Are you sure you don't wanna get out of there?_ " Calliope rolled her eyes and sighed to herself. " _I can get one of my friends to get you out of there, y'know, if you wanna get somewhere safe!_ "

"No! I'm fine!" As she had said before. Calliope hated having to repeat herself, and this conversation was getting frustrating on top of the rest of her day. She managed to keep her professional tone, but with the harshness that Belfast usually used during disciplinary meetings, "Krillin, I'm going to hang up now! And if someone comes through my doors with the intent of taking me 'somewhere safe', I swear I will shoot them full of goddamn goat tranquilizers! Thank you for your concern, and goodbye!"

Calliope ended the call without another word. She took a deep breath and again sighed to herself. This was the worst time for her to be uprooted from her lab when it was set up for its current purpose and the samples were still processing.

"HoloCat! List that unknown number as Z-Warriors! Then set up to send an automated message if we get a confirmed sight of Cell! Have it go to that number!" She made sure to double check the rifle, and made sure that the extra tranquilizer darts were nearby. With any luck, Krillin would listen to her, and wouldn't send any of his friends. More distractions were the last thing she needed now.

She didn't realize at first when the sirens stopped. After a few moments, where her ears rang, Calliope paused. Utter silence. After hours of dulled sirens, the complete lack of noise was just as eerie as the sirens had been at first. She wasn't sure what this meant. Perhaps her trusted IT team did. Pulling up HoloCat, she again saw the sign of unread alerts that were of a lower priority. Searching through them, the number had grown in the last hour. There were News alerts of the local evacuation, about mysterious attacks happening around the region, and a message from Jay. She opened the last one immediately.

" _Cal, first off, WHAT THE HELL?!_ " The message read, _"Second, I think I have an idea what you're doing. I'll cover for you here as long as I can manage. Maybe say your grandpa had another episode and you had to go right from the evac site to him or something. Please let me know if you're safe Cal, and be careful. There is scary news coming out of the area. I'll see if Nash can do something about the sirens, I know they have to be driving you crazy by now_."

"Oh you beautiful IT nerds..." Calliope smiled for the first time in, what felt like, forever. They had her back, her paranoid, conspiracy theory believing, creepy IT department. Her people really were a great source of strength. It was nice not to have to yell over sirens. "HoloCat Collective, unmute."

"Yes, Doctor Merriweather!" All the HoloCat units chimed at the same time, and for a moment she felt like a general in charge of an army of small cat blobs. She dictated an email to Jay,

"Jay-man, I'm safe. I got eyes in the sky keeping surveillance, and those Z-Warriors we met earlier will be alerted if Big Squishy is spotted. I'm currently studying Lil' Squishy, waiting for analyses to come back now. No leads on the androids so far. I'll try to update you every hour."

Jay was worth the trouble

of updating every once and a while. He had pulled through for her today in ways she didn't think possible. They absolutely deserved a raise and extra vacation days.

It was by chance when taking a last glance at the unread notices, she noticed a peculiar notification from shortly after the evacuation. She had been setting her alerts to silent at that time to keep from being bothered. There had been enough work to be done organizing their evacuation. 'Android designated 16, contacted established.' That was hours ago.

"HoloCat, I see you contacted android 16?"

"I did! He's a really nice artificial construct!"

"That's great HoloCat, can you connect a call to him for me?" There was still a chance she could figure out where the androids were, which would solve a large part of her problems.

"Okay! One moment please!"

It took several moments for the call to connect through, and Calliope returned to her sit back on her stool. She was unsure what to expect. Her father's creations were advanced, of course, but she had no idea what to expect out of an actual conversation. The call connected, and HoloCat came back on with its usual cheer.

"Okay, Doctor Merriweather! I have you connected with Mr. Android 16!"

"Oh. Um. Hello?" Real graceful, Calliope thought to herself with a wince.

" _Hello, Doctor Merriweather._ " The voice that came over the line was certainly robotic to an obvious degree but used a gentle tone that she didn't expect from a killer machine.

"Hi, um, this is a bit awkward..." Perhaps the most straightforward introduction was best at this point. "I'm Doctor Gero's daughter... and, uh" or she could fumble trying to think of a tactful way of going about this.

" _It is good to hear from you, Doctor Merriweather. HoloCat told me about the evacuation taking place at your lab. Did you get to the auxiliary site safety?_ "

"My staff got out. I didn't go." Her feet fidgeted on the rungs of the stool, and she continued, "The nuclear meltdown was fake. Some of my employees were able to hack the computers at the power plant, made it think it was going into meltdown. We needed to evacuate people from the area, and it was the best we had.."

" _I do not understand. Why did you need to evacuate people? Are you currently in danger?_ " HoloCat was right, this 16 did seem to be a nice model. Sweet even.

"I'm not in immediate danger." Calliope sighed. Even with her precautions, she knew there was still a decent threat in staying in her lab. "There's another creation of Doctor Gero's on the loose. It's hunting the androids designated 17 and 18. Currently, this creation is roaming around and, for lack of a better term, eating people, assumably trying to amass more power. The fake meltdown was more meant to get the populated areas around here to get to safer locations."

" _Why did you stay in Nicky Town if there are dangerous conditions? It would have been wise to evacuate_." The androids voice came through with a distinctly sterner tone.

Great, now another person was worried about her safety. Calliope rubbed at the bridge of her nose.

"I have an early warning system in place, so it should buy me time to get a head start if need be. But I need the equipment at my lab to study this creature, the version of it from this time... He's going by the name Cell. Its a long story, but essentially he's a genetically-engineered super soldier from the future, and his goal is to consume androids 17 and 18 to reach some kind of powerful, ultimate form. If Cell is able to do this, given his current inclinations, it could put the world at large in danger."

" _I am traveling with 17 and 18._ " 16 offered helpfully, " _We are on a 'road trip' to kill Goku._ " Of course they were, Calliope thought wryly.

"Okay, I get that. Doctor Gero had a thing about killing Goku." she tried to sound understanding, "But you're _with_ 17 and 18? Right now?"

" _I am. However, with this 'Cell' on the loose, it may be wise to consider postponing our original plans. If we were to find and kill Goku, we are likely to engage with his friends as well. This would cause a noticeable power increase that this 'Cell' may be able to sense._ "

"And possibly deduce that it was the androids that they would be fighting, assuming there are no other threats for these guys to go after?" Calliope was guessing here. They could sense each other's power? Her father's research did mention things like this in his notes, but she was never entirely clear on what it meant.

" _Yes. This would put 17 and 18, yourself, and the rest of the planet in danger_." It was nice that she didn't have to convince 16 of anything. This conversation was going smoother then she had hoped. " _I will inform them of this. But I can not guarantee they will change their plans_."

"Oh, okay, cool." With any luck, the androids might just stay hidden. Their untraceable models would just need to hide out until Cell was found and dealt with. Easy peasy.

" _I will broadcast our call so that you may help explain the situation to them._ " 16 said suddenly, catching Calliope off guard.

"Wait, what, I dunno about that 16! I-Uhh..." she heard her voice echo back at her, as if from an enclosed space.

~Somewhere on the Road~

The van the androids occupied was jostling along a dirt road. The way to Goku's home had taken them off the main roads, and further from civilization. The silence was broken as Android 16 spoke up.

"17 and 18!" His tone was unusually urgent, "I have important information that you need to hear."

"What is it 16?" 17 called back in his normal nonchalant way. "Did you see another bird, buddy?"

"This is not about the birds, 16. I have communications with Doctor Merriweather about a matter that concerns both of you."

"Wait, Doctor who?" 18 had turned in her seat to stare at 16. The twins had had enough bad experiences with Doctor Gero that they were suspicious of anyone with the title.

"I will broadcast our call so that we can better explain it to both of you." 16 offered no further explanation.

The next moment another voice, that neither sibling recognized, emitting from 16's head. It sounded to be a young lady, who at first sounded just as startled as they were. " _Wait, what, I dunno about that 16! I-Uhh..._ "

At this point, the van lurched to a stop, and 17 whirled around to stare at 16 as well. It was silent for several moments before the voice spoke up again, tentatively. They didn't realize 16 had radio communications. Neither 17 or 18 had those features built into them.

".. _. 16? Are you still there? Am I on speakerphone?_ "

"I am still here, Doctor Merriweather."

" _Okay, cool. 17 and 18 still there?_ "

"Yeah, we are." 17 answered this time, suspicious of this mysterious caller. "And just who the hell are you?"

"... _Well. If you were listening to 16, my name is Doctor Merriweather. Calliope Merriweather. I'm Doctor Gero's daughter. Or a clone of his daughter, something like that. Anyway, there's a_ _genetically-engineered super soldier that's coming to, essentially, eat you two, 17 and 18. Trying to kill Goku or his friends isn't advisable at this time. It will greatly increase the risk that you'll be found and, again, eaten. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. Yes, I'm being serious. It would be best if you guys go into hiding_." She was beginning to sound annoyed under her professional veneer.

"Wait, Gero has a freaking daughter?!" 17's face scrunched up with shock and disgust, his sister had a similar reaction.

"Eww. Seriously?" 18 spoke up now, disbelief clear in her voice. "Someone actually had sex with the crazy old man?"

"Uhg! Just thinking about it makes me wanna puke!" 17 shook himself, trying to get the image out of his head.

" _Actually no sex was involved with my birth. I was a test-tube baby._ " Calliope cut in again, and quickly insisted, " _Guys, I feel like you're paying attention to the wrong details here. You need to find a safe place, and hide out there! Can you guys do that?_ "

"Are you trying to tell me what to do, baby Gero?" 17 jested and turned to glare at 16 as if he could stare through and affect the party on the other line. He always had a thing about people bossing him around. His eyes narrowed, and malicious intent leaked into his voice. "I gotta tell ya, that didn't work out for your dear old dad."

"... _ **Don't**_ _call me that._ " The voice on the call answered after a moment in a chilled tone. She tried to continue but was cut off by 17.

"Tell ya what Baby Gero," He hadn't entirely dropped his cold tone. "We're going to keep going on our road trip, and we're going to kill Goku. then I'm going to figure out wherever the hell you are and swing by to pay you a visit. How's that sound?"

Calliope didn't answer at first. When she did, it was edged with sarcasm. " _And do what? Kill me?_ " She chuckled dryly like he was telling a bad joke. " _Considering your categorized as a failed project in my father's notes, I would be very surprised if you could manage that. 'Too cognitively deficient to function' is what it says right here, in his notes._ "

"Hah, I'm sorry, but you're joking with me, right?" Where 17 was caught off guard at first by her sudden shift in tone but was quick to anger. There was another Gero talking down from their lofty, insane throne. This wouldn't stand.

" _I'm a teenage genetic engineer with a well-established career. I don't joke._ " Her voice went deadpanned. Then Calliope's spoke further with a calm, though haughty lilt. " _And just in case my big words confused you, 'cognitively deficient' means stupid. In the very short conversation we've had, 17, I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. If breathing is still a thing you need to do, I'd recommend finding the nearest plant and apologizing to it for all the oxygen you're wasting_."

"You know what?" 17 began loudly, while he twisted back into the driver's seat and threw the van into reverse. "I bet you'll make a stupid, shocked face when _I cut your head off_.

Just like the old Doctor Gero!"

" _Well, if you_ _ **somehow**_ _bumble yourself over to Minnows Farm, I'd love to see you try._ " The young doctor taunted. " _Hey 16, could you take me off speakerphone? This conversation is boring me._ "

There was a soft click as the small but powerful speakers present on 16 went silent. The van jostled harshly as it hurtled back the way it came on the dirt road. 18 was sitting calmly with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at her brother.

"17, what are you doing?" She asked, nonplussed by the exchange 17 had had with the junior Gero.

"I want to make a quick detour, wipe out the rest of the Gero family tree." 17's voice was once again cold, dangerous. A teenage girl shouldn't take too long to kill.

"Seriously?" 18 rolled her eyes and kicked her heels up to rest on the dashboard. "At this rate, we're never going to actually get to kill Goku, are we?"

"Hey, we made stops for your stupid clothes shopping! Let me have this one thing!" The two were back to bickering, while 17 navigated the way back to the main road.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

Calliope breathed a sigh of relief when she was taken off speakerphone with the other androids. With everything she knew about what they had been capable of in the future, it was terrifying to think she would be their next target. First purely because of her relation to her father, and now for taunting and 17. Perhaps she had inherited some of the madness she often faulted he senior Gero for. She was certainly acting like it today.

" _This is a dangerous plan, Doctor Merriweather_." 16 spoke up again, on their quiet channel where his companions could not hear.

"Yeah, well, if it keeps Cell from absorbing them, I'm okay with being bait." Calliope did not have a further plan for how to handle if she did actually face 17. After her rude display, talking him down might not be an option.

" _I meant you staying in Nicky Town, Doctor._ "

"Ah, that." She had surveillance. There were precautions in place in the event of Cell making an appearance in Nicky Town. She had a gun full of goat tranquilizers. "I have it all in hand, 16. I'll have HoloCat send you directions to Minnows Farms. Its where we keep the mega goats."

" _Mega goats?_ " 16 did not sound incredulous or teasing in this, only genuinely curious.

"They're a species I engineered. They're goats. But big. Really big." It was the only place she could think of on the spot while trying to lure the androids off course. The most powerful thing out on the research farm was Big Ben, the largest male goat in existence. "16, I do have a favor to ask... Please make sure they don't harm the goats. They're completely innocent in all of this."

" _I understand, Doctor. I will not let them harm your mega goats_."

"Thank you, 16. And please, keep 17 and 18 safe. It sounds like they didn't really believe they are in any danger."

" _I will do my best, Doctor_."

"I appreciate your help, 16."

" _I do have a request, Doctor Merriweather._ "

"Sure, what is it?" This surprised Calliope. What could a surprisingly gentle android built to kill Goku possibly want from her?

" _Do not put yourself into further danger. If your system detects Cell in the area, get to safety_." 16's soft tones were there, but with a strong undercurrent of sober concern.

"I'll do my best to do that." She tried not to think about the kind of situation she had gotten herself into. Calliope could have very easily gone with her team, she knew, and be well out of Cell's hunting grounds. "Goodbye, 16, I need to get back to work. Best of luck."

" _Goodbye, Doctor Merriweather._ "

The sun was glowing orange on the windows, it was the only hint in the lab as to the time. It would be night time soon. Calliope rubbed her face and tried to get back some of the nervous energy she had been running on. Her efforts felt like they were fruitless. She needed more time to study these analyses, which was not something she was guaranteed. Turning back to the HoloCat collective, she resumed her work on trying to figure out something, anything that could be of help against Cell.

She was almost able to fool herself into thinking it was just another day, the way she was going at her work after hours. Normally, her team would have already been home to their families by now. Calliope herself would have had a reminder on HoloCat to get something to eat. If this was a normal day, she'd eventually break away from work to take care of herself. She would shower, catch up on the few personal emails she received, perhaps read scientific journals.

Under normal circumstances, she would not have been working at a fervent pace until 6 am, when her eyes began to ache and her focus weakened. All the coffee and cup noodles in the world were not enough to keep her properly fueled. A few hours of sleep, she decided reluctantly. A few hours of sleep to recharge and be able to get back to work. She made a nest in a more comfortable office chair in the lab with the HoloCat Collective, rifle in her arms, and leaned back. The alerts would be able to wake her if Cell made it within their range. She would have a chance to get away. Goku's friends would be notified and on their way. Her alarm was set and would wake her up in a few hours.

When she did manage to get to sleep, her dreams were vivid and disturbing. Calliope saw her father judging her with a severe gaze for going off the path he had intended for her. He said things she didn't understand or actually hear, then shook her by the shoulders and demanded she avenge him. She saw she had a bundle wrapped in a blanket in her arms, and looked down to see Lil' Squishy wriggling its tiny arms at her. She saw the world burning, the sky was red. The nerds in IT were right and the end had come. People screamed, and she couldn't help them. They screamed.

Calliope was conscious in a daze, and for a few minutes did not know why her normal wake up alarm was so loud and urgent. It sounded like many HoloCats screeching in fright.

"HoloCat, mute!" She called sleepily, and the lab went silent. Seconds later the commotion started up again. Calliope sat upright this time, knocking herself in the face with the rifle in her arms. She realized what they were screaming.

"Proximity alert! Proximity alert within one-mile maker! Subject designated Cell within one-mile marker!" The entire HoloCat Collective was lit up red, all of them screaming.

"Shit." Calliope cursed harshly, and quickly wrestled herself from the blankets and stumbled to get herself prepared. Was that report right? Within one mile? There was still time if she was able to get out the back. The HoloCats could alert her to Cell's presence if he made an approach to her lab. "Alert is acknowledged! Stop yelling at me!"

~The Outskirts of Nicky Town~

The sirens had gone quiet yesterday. But the population in the area was still scattered. While it did make it harder to hunt, Cell was willing to face the challenge of picking these people off the roadways. He had still not been found by his enemies, but he still needed to be careful.

The well-broadcasted warnings that had the people scattered to the wind was that of a nuclear meltdown. They ran in fear of radioactive fallout that their feeble bodies could not handle. He had his doubts about the authenticity of this claim, even as he was within range to hear the siren. The timing was too conspicuous, with the appearance of the androids, and himself even. There was a story that he was told, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, of an intrepid information technology department that had managed to send the population into a fleeing panic like this. A bug in the system was exploited to make it seem that the reactor core was going into meltdown, for the specific purpose of forcing an evacuation. 'Paranoid but prepared nerds' he remembered she called them. It was an attempt to save people.

Cell had spent the day and better part of the night stalking the smaller roads, which were clogged with traffic. He circled back eventually, to where these people were fleeing from, to Nicky Town. He knew it was possible she wasn't even there. She may have evacuated with her staff.

Nicky Town proper stood silent. The only movement was that of the wind moving loose debris. There would be nothing to hunt here, and he accepted this. The towers of the nuclear power plant were too close for sensible people to remain with the evacuation in effect. Cell made a beeline through the town, down the main road, searching for the only thing worthwhile to him here. In the morning light, there was a glint of glass off the main road. There was a crooked oak tree near its entrance. A large building with the slanted glass roof. He pivoted and stopped at the sight. She had described her previous life well enough that the building was familiar to him.

'Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town' The sign place on the lawn before the building confirmed what Cell suspected. It was still here, in this time.

The lab was made of clean white stone, the double doors of shining glass. Locked, of course. With a pulse of energy, Cell shattered the doors before him.

Inside the building was almost as silent as the rest of the town. Almost. There were some small sounds of clattering through the back, where the labs were. Cell slowed his pace, he walked passed the reception area, passed a small break room, and down the hall to the laboratory proper. He did pause at the framed picture of staff portraits on the wall. Near the top, listed as President of the Board and Senior Researcher, Doctor Calliope Merriweather. In this image, she was much more composed than she had been in the tabloid he had seen. She had a white lab coat on, her hands neatly folded in her lap, with a polite smile for the picture. Cell smiled up at the picture, she looked like everything he remembered, just younger. Calm, collected,

lovely. This building was a testament to her ambitions, just as he was.

He left the photos on the wall after a few moments and continued to the lab. There was another door, made of tinted glass, secured by an electronic lock. Cell shattered this door as well and stepped into the main lab. The room was bright but still in the late morning sun, let in by the slanted glass ceiling. He scanned the room slowly. Papers were out of place, there were many coffee mugs forgotten at the workstations. The staff had left in a rush, of course.

Noise from the left of the lab drew his eyes to the tinted glass door at that wall, where the door burst open. She was running at a frantic pace, rifle in her hands, hair falling out of the normally-neat bun. Her eyes were wild and searching the lab for something before they fell on him, and she stopped altogether, between the two rows of workstations. Her eyes widened with surprise, just as Cell's did. She quickly straightened herself, pulled her shoulders back, and lowered the barrel to point at the floor. A moment passed, the two staring at each other.

"Doctor Merriweather, I presume?" Cell spoke as smoothly as this form allowed, and watched as one of her eyebrows arched. "Or should I say, Doctor Gero?"

"It's Merriweather." She said back in an even tone. Ever the calm, collected professional, Calliope. Of course, she wouldn't be the sort to run screaming from him, or beg for her life. She took a breath to say something when her words were cut off by a screaming red hologram at her wrist.

"Ahh! Doctor Merriweather! Proximity alert-!"

" _Thank you_ , HoloCat." She had lifted her wrist and spoke in a louder tone than the alert, edging on annoyance. She still didn't break eye contact with Cell. "I'm aware of the situation."


	6. Big Squishy

Chapter 5: Big Squishy

~Kame House~

Master Roshi was waiting, watching, trying to keep abreast the situation at hand. For now, that meant sitting by the phone, watching the news. The usual fluff stories of firemen rescuing sewer puppies were replaced with reports about massive disappearances, and the apparent nuclear meltdown outside Nicky Town. Some experts argued that there was no evidence of fallout around the Shine power plant. The evacuations for the surrounding areas were still in place. With confirmed sightings of a monster hunting people among the towns and on back roads. The newscasters were starting to look stressed and exhausted from their continued coverage.

He knew what was really happening. Cell was absorbing the region's population and Doctor Gero's daughter faked a nuclear meltdown. That last part was still a surprise. Who knew Gero had a daughter? Trunks had confirmed that he hadn't seen any sight or heard of a Miss Gero in the future. But then she had been going by a different name in the present, to avoid association with her father. It wasn't impossible that she went by one in the future. They speculated that she either died or went into hiding; possibly working on a still-developing Cell, in Trunk's timeline.

Goku had recovered and left with his son to train for the newest dangers. Cell was still at large, as they had not been able to track the 'bio-android' down yet. The androids were still somewhere as well, likely causing trouble of their own.

He had a seat on the couch, near the phone, waiting. This was all he could do. Watch, and wait. The phone suddenly rang, and Master Roshi bet anything that it would be Bulma with either good news or bad news. She had been studying the blueprints of the androids from Gero's lab, trying to find a way to kill or deactivate them.

He didn't even get a chance to say 'Hello' before the screaming started. It sounded like half a dozen crying children. Their cries overlapped one another as they all spoke at once.

 _"AHHH!-"  
"Proximity alert!-"  
"He's here!  
"Help-"  
"Dr. Merriweather isn't leaving!"  
"Proximity alert!-"  
"Within one-mile marker!"  
"AHHHH!-"  
"Automated! Message!"_

"Ah! _Stop yellin' at me_!" Master Roshi yelled in reaction to the panicked sounds and held the phone away from his head. That certainly wasn't Bulma.

The commotion coming from the phone, which sounded like a group of yelling, scared children drew the attention of the others. There was an equal mix of concern and confusion. Krillin, in particular, looked worried at the sudden call, overhearing the noises from the phone.

"Is that Doctor Merriweather?" Krillin spoke up and started to rouse himself from his spot in front of the TV.

"I don't know! Its a bunch of them, and they're all screaming at me!"

Master Roshi tried to listen carefully to what they were screaming about. It was hard to pick out anything specific, but they all sounded so panicked. After a moment he was yelling into the receiver, "Hey now! One at a time!"

There was a brief silence before they all continued, high-pitched voices that sounded strained with worry,

 _"This is a proximity alert!-"  
"We don't have protocols for this!-"  
"AHHH!-"  
"Send help!"  
"Proximity alert!"_

"Hey! Hey! Dammit, I said one at a time!" This time the voices quieted and Master Roshi was able to bring the phone back to his ear. It sounded like they were murmuring among themselves. "Okay, now, what's the problem? You said you needed help?"

The voices were calmer now, but they still spoke quickly. They weren't speaking one after another now and seemed to have found some order among themselves.

" _We do!"  
"Doctor Merriweather, of Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town, set an automated alert to be sent to this phone number!"  
"This is an automated message!"  
"Subject Designated 'Cell' has been identified within the city limits of Nicky Town!"  
"Doctor Merriweather is still at Minnows BioSolutions!"  
"Send help! We believe she may be in danger!"_

"Wait wait! Did you say you saw Cell? _In Nicky Town_?" He went wide-eyed at this. Hot damn! Krillin had mentioned that Gero's daughter would notify them if her security system had caught sight of Cell. He hadn't expected the alert to sound so... Animated, and worried.

" _Yes_!" The small voices answered in unity. What kind of computer-generated nonsense was this? The line went dead after that, the small voices having delivered their message and recognized it as understood.

"I think it was some kind of computer generated message, but it sounded like a whole bunch of kids yelling at me!" Master Roshi set the phone back down now that the call had ended. He grew serious after that, "But they said that Cell was spotted in Nicky Town. Sounds like they were worried about Doctor Merriweather because she's still there. What the Hell is she still doing there? I would have thought everyone was evacuated."

"Well, she stayed to study the baby-version of Cell from this timeline." Krillin shrugged and sheepishly continued. "I tried to tell her it was dangerous, but she just threatened to shoot anyone that came into her lab with 'goat tranquilizers'?"

"Goat tranquilizers? She doesn't seriously think those would be any use against Cell, does she?" Tien spoke up now, and he was straightening himself from his spot leaning against the wall.

Alerted to the danger, and now knowing the location of Cell, Piccolo and Tien took it upon themselves to shoot away from Kame House immediately. The more dangerous of their enemies, who also proved to be most elusive, was found. It was just the kind of break they had been waiting for.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

She wasn't surprised that he knew her name. As far as Cell could tell, anyway.

"I'm aware of the situation," Calliope spoke to HoloCat but maintained eye contact with him. She always did make sure to be prepared in dire circumstances. No doubt she would have some manner of surveillance in the area. The silence was held for several moments before she spoke to Cell again, in a cool neutral way. "I don't think we've been properly introduced yet."

If it were anyone else, Cell would think they were being bravely, stupidly facetious. But there was a flicker of recognition in those green eyes, and he couldn't tell if it was just from being well-informed by the news. His activities had been getting a fair amount of coverage, from what he could tell. The military had already thrown their strength at him to no success. It was clear she wasn't sure what to expect from him.

"Of course, how rude of me. And here I am acting like we're old friends. That must be quite disconcerting." She hadn't, after all, spent nearly two decades correcting and conditioning his genetic makeup before the Gero master computer took over. They truly were as good as strangers at this point in time. He couldn't help but laugh a bit. "My name is Cell. It is so nice to finally meet you, Calliope."

He continued to watch her, just as she did with him. Nearly a day ago, during his little battle with Piccolo that had gone south, he had let his origins slip in an instant when he had the upper hand. Of course, he had explained Doctor Geros' genius. Both of theirs. He was practically singing her praises at refining her father's work. Had they been able to track her down? Or contact her in any way? Did she know? Cell was certain he never mentioned the name Merriweather, or the lab in Nicky Town. There was a chance she was still in the dark about exactly who he was.

"I certainly hope that gun isn't intended for me." Cell's gaze flicked down to the rifle that she still held. He wondered what exactly she was planning on doing with the gun.

"Well, the news keeps running stories about a monster that's running around eating people. I like to be prepared." Calliope glanced at the rifle and gave a small shrug as if she had forgotten about it. She smoothly set it down on a nearby workstation. "I thought it would make a good deterrent against looters."

"Because even in the event of an evacuation, you're not the type to leave millions of dollars of lab equipment unguarded." Cell chuckled again, with a knowing smile.

"I'm really not." She gave a slight nod.

"Especially if you knew the evacuation was caused by your own staff." He picked up quickly, in an amused tone. Calliope's expression didn't change.

"My IT department likes to be prepared, as well." She ran a hand through the stray strands of her hair that had fallen out of place. It looked as if she hadn't slept the previous night, perhaps even the night before. She gave a polite smile, but it never reached her eyes. "So, what can I do for you, Cell?"

"Oh, I was hoping you would ask." Cell chortled and began a slow, steady advance towards her. His length tail swayed gently behind him but did not direct itself at her. He continued speaking until he stopped just an arm's length away. "Perhaps it would be best to make sure you're all caught up. Tell me, how much do you know of your father's work?"

"I know he didn't retire, as he told me he did." Her smile faltered there, and her voice spoke to some exasperation. Calliope would always hold this against her father. Perhaps especially now, with the situation as it was.

"Far from it, in fact. You've already been notified of his death, correct?" Best to get the basic facts out of the way. There had to be a reason she stayed here when her nerds faked a meltdown. It was likely they did it to scatter the population. An attempt to get the innocent, stupid people out of his reach.

"I have."

"Then you have also learned of your 'inheritance'."

"I am aware of what he left to me, yes." Calliope's expression never changed as she answered, her tone stayed level and neutral.

"... I'm sensing some hesitancy, Doctor." Cell said narrowed his eyes down at her. He wanted to be surprised that she was being difficult, but he wasn't. It didn't

stop her clipped answers from being frustrating.

Calliope's cool, professional facade did crack, just a little. She frowned, her eyebrows drew together.

"My father and his work are not..." She puffed a breath out her nose, and a touch of unease entered her voice. "They're not subjects I'm comfortable talking about."

Cell watched Calliope closely over the next few moments. She would not cry, scream, or beg for her life, he knew this. Doctor Gero did not raise his daughter to be a fragile, easily frazzled thing. As he watched her, he realized she was waiting for him to react and could pick up the quickened pace of her heartbeat. He blinked then, confused. Was she afraid? Of him?

If it were anyone else, he would not be surprised.

That was fine. Goku's friends were still nowhere nearby. He had time for a little chat. To be honest, Cell had been looking forward to being able to this.

"I see. Well, let me make sure we're both on the same page." Perhaps she would be more forthcoming if he laid all the cards on the table, so to speak. Calliope still might know something about the androids whereabouts. Cell then continued, affecting gregarious tones, "No, your father never stopped his work. He created more androids, kept working to kill Goku, planning to build the strongest creations this world has ever seen. The last pair of androids did not perform quite as planned. They were strong, yes, but disobedient and violent. They would be the ones to end up killing Doctor Gero senior. But before this..." He watched Calliope closely when he next spoke, "He began one, last, greatest project.."

Calliope continued to frown during his explanation. She was starting to look annoyed.

"Which I'm betting is you." She stated, more than asked. She did not look surprised.

"In a way, yes." He chuckled at this point, before continuing with a more excited tone, "But he never finished this project. He had neither the time nor the skills to see me to completion. It is so lucky, however, that his daughter happened to be bright, ambitious, and well-versed in the particular set of skills needed."

Calliope's frown was deepening, but Cell knew she was following the story, that it was filling the holes in the plot she had already known. "It would take her twenty years to complete the project, with the help of the supercomputers left to her. All while the androids that Doctor Gero senior built ravaged the world. By the time I was ready to enter the world, the androids had already been destroyed. If you've done your research- which I would be very surprised if you haven't by now, dear Calliope- you would understand that I need these androids to complete my final, perfect form. I found a way, and went back, twenty years, to a time where the androids still existed! And I stand before you now, the evidence of a lifetime of your efforts to continue your father's work to create the ultimate weapon!"

She was still frowning, and he could hear her heart pounding with either excitement or fear. But Cell could see in her eyes that she understood. He spread his arms wide, and couldn't help but laugh while showing Calliope the glory of the Gero family's creation, towering over her like had so many others. Still, she did not cry or otherwise break down. Even so young she was collected enough to listen.

"Isn't it just so exciting that you don't have to wait that long to see the results of your work, Doctor Gero?" Cell reigned in his excitement. It was not his intention to frighten Calliope, he still needed the aid she was most likely to provide. He leaned closer, pleased when she did not shrink or flinch, and spoke in a murmur, "Isn't it exciting to see what's your Lil' Squishy has grown into?"

Calliope's face finally fell at that, the mention of his long-held pet name. Taking a breath, she sighed and closed her eyes. "Twenty years and I never came up with a better nickname? That's embarrassing..."

~Minnows Farms~

The 20 acres of land that comprised the farm owned by Minnows BioSolutions was mostly green fields full of grass and wildflowers. A few trees dotted the land, and to the south, it bled into the forest. At first glance, one might think that the farm was occupied by many cows or ox. This was the home of the Mega Goat. The adults stood an average of 6 feet tall, 4 feet wide at the shoulders. The population had reached 46 individuals, with the 15 kids born during that year's spring.

Android 16 enjoyed the farm. It was quiet, peaceful, and the goats were friendly. The androids had arrived in the morning hours to the farm to find it vacant except for the goats.

There was a small farmhouse on the land, where the licensed veterinarians usually stayed to take care of the goats. Since the evacuation order had been declared for Nicky Town and the surrounding areas, the staff had vacated to safer territory. They either had not the time or the thought, to pack and move the goats with everything going on. Shine nuclear power plant was far enough away that there was only a voluntary evacuation order in effect, but with the scare of monsters eating people they decided to be safe.

The goats did not mind. There was enough grass and flowers, plenty of room, and warm sunshine. During the daytime, they usually stayed near the farmhouse, where their caretakers usually stayed. With new friends to play with, many of the goats curiously sniffed at the androids when they arrived.

"Where the Hell is that little bitch!?" Android 17, upon arrival, had immediately begun tearing through the house. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he had gone about breaking anything that looked even remotely expensive. There was a small lab/clinic for the goats that had many pieces of equipment for studying samples from the goats. They all ended up crushed to their comprising bits, and many of the samples splashed on the walls.

"Ugh, this place stinks." Android 18 complained, from her and 16's spot outside the farmhouse. She chose to sit in a nearby tree, high enough to keep the more curious goats from sniffing at her and nibbling on her clothes. It was obvious the detour was annoying her. She was further annoyed when a few of the goats began climbing the tree to bleat at her.

Android 16 had taken a seat under the tree, and happily let the goats flock around him. Two of the kids had taken to snuggling up in his spacious lap, an adult goat snuffled and nibbled at his hair. Occasionally the goats, as such creatures are wont to do, jumped on his broad shoulders and hopped back off.

"You doing okay down there, 16?" 18 called down as she eyed the goats.

"I am doing fine! These goats are very friendly!" 16 said loud enough to be heard over the bleating goats. He did not mind the detour in the least. Especially if it kept his friends safe. Being able to spend time on a quiet farm with goats was a bonus. Even with the adolescent goats that tested their curved horns by butting against 16's head.

"Well, I'm glad you're having fun... You know one of those goats are chewing on your hair?"

"It is fine! This goat is my friend."

"Okay, if you say so."

It was at this time when 17 was coming out of the farmhouse to complain to himself about the 'little bitch baby Gero' not showing up, that a call came through on 16's radio. He recognized it immediately as the HoloCat device he spoke with previously. He answered it immediately, on internal systems for privacy. This time 16 didn't get a chance to greet HoloCat before there was a distressed scream.

" _Ahh! Mr. Android 16_!"

"Hello, HoloCat. Is everything okay?" It was unusual to hear the personal assistant sound anything less than chipper.

" _No it is not!_ " HoloCat sounded like it was on the verge of crying, its tiny voice held so much anxiety as it spoke quickly, " _The surveillance systems around Nicky Town identified Subject Designated Cell within the city! And then inside the premises of Minnows BioSolutions! Doctor Merriweather acknowledged the alert but she's still on site! We... we don't have protocols for this kind of situation... I believe Doctor Merriweather is in danger! But with the mandatory evacuation order for the surrounding areas, there are no local authorities to contact! But we also have you listed as a safe contact! We would like to request assistance at this time!_ "

"Cell is in Nicky Town?" 16 confirmed, with a growing sense of concern. "And Doctor Merriweather is still there?"

" _Yes! Doctor Merriweather is speaking with Subject Designated 'Cell' right now, but our systems still list him as a hostile entity!_ "

"HoloCat, send me the coordinates for Doctor Merriweather's location." 16 spoke in a serious tone now and was already moving to get up from his spot under the trees. He nudged the larger goats out of his hair and gently removed the kids in his lap. "I am on my way now. I will try to get her to safety."

" _Thank you Mr. Android 16! On behalf of Minnows BioSolutions, I appreciate your assistance! Please hurry!_ "

"16! Why don't you call that girl and try and figure out where she is?" 17 had approached the tree outside where the other androids had gathered around. The sour look on his face lessened as he watched 16 leave the goats and begin walking away from the tree. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Doctor Merriweather is in danger. I am going to assist her." Stopping, 16 turned to look at his traveling companions with an uncharacteristic hard look. "You two stay here. Do not harm the goats."

The other androids and the goats watched as 16 shot into the sky. His trail abruptly turned to fly in the direction of Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town.

"Well where the Hell is he going?!" 17 threw his hands up in frustration. First Gero's daughter failed to show up, and now 16 was speaking nonsense and flying off to god-knows-where.

"I think he said something about Merriweather? Isn't that the chick you have a beef with,

17?" 18 called down from the tree. She eyed a goat that made it to one branch below her. The white and brown spotted goat bleated up at her and stared.

"I think it is! I can't believe he just left like that!"

"Let's go after him. These goats smell _terrible_."

With that, 17 and 18 leaped into the skies as well. The goats watched as their new friends shot up into the sky, and angled themselves towards the same direction 16 went. They did not worry about nuclear fallout, or monsters eating people. The goats went back to nibbling on grass and jumping on things. To them, it was another beautiful summer day.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

He was smart enough to talk, Calliope reminded herself in an attempt to keep calm. Hell, he was smart enough to be smarmy. There was still a chance she could talk or reason her way out of danger.

"Nomenclature was the least of your worries." Cell leaned back then and stood with his arms crossed, smirking. "As you use to put it, your father was 'a hack-job of a geneticist'. You had your work cut out for you. And I have to say, the combined efforts of the Gero family are quite impressive."

Had this been any other situation, with an intelligent, self-aware creature of her future self's creation, Calliope would have been bubbling with excitement. At this moment she would settle for a guarantee that she wasn't going to be killed. Had she ever been taught what to do if caught by the psychopathic, genetically-engineered super soldier made by her father and her own hand, but from the future? Of course, she hadn't. They didn't teach courses on dealing with the results of science gone mad. There was a reason why ethics committees existed. Why their work was peer-reviewed. To keep things like this from happening.

More importantly, where those Z-warrior guys? Had HoloCat's automated message gotten through? Was anyone on their way?

"Yeah, I think that's a bit of an understatement." Calliope wasn't playing at being amazed. It was truly staggering that the project her father had left to her could be a viable being. For a moment she felt this situation was ridiculous. She found herself sighing again. "So just to make sure I'm clear... You're the future-version of the genetic-engineering project my father started, and myself in the future continued work on, come back in time to consume or otherwise integrate the androids, 17 and 18. Right?"

"Correct." He spoke in a rough voice that reminded her that this was a very dire situation she had gotten herself into. The way Cell spoke about himself, her father, the whole project, was distressing as it was irritating.

It felt like the universe was mocking her, for how hard she tried to distance herself from her father's legacy. None of it seemed to matter now. Changing her name, the silence between her and her only living family, trying so hard to work and live by established ethical standards.

"...What made me agree to help?" She found herself asking, flatly. She had to know. Hopefully, future-Calliope spent as much time explaining her actions as she had in this time. She continued after finding Cell looking at her with a confused gaze, "I wouldn't have picked up where my father left off if I had a choice. The eth-"

"The ethical implications were too great for you to conscientiously participate. I know." Cell cut in chillingly. That sounded close enough to something she would say. She internally winced when he spoke with a sinister chortle. "In my time, you didn't have the luxury of the moral high-ground. The androids had decimated the world you know now, killed most of the population, and drove you underground. You tried other courses of action, tried to deal with the androids in other ways. Nothing worked. Trust me, you got over the ethical implications when it was clear you had no other choice."

"Backed into a corner with no other options," Calliope stated, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. There would be no other way she'd agree to work on this particular project. Her future self would have thought it a matter of survival. It was a practical, if distasteful, decision.

"And as much as I'm enjoying our chat, I'm afraid I didn't come here just for a social visit..."

"I don't know where the androids are." She didn't want to tip-toe around the unasked question. Why else would Cell have sought her out? Technically it wasn't a lie, as Calliope never got confirmation that the androids had made it to Minnows Farms or not.

"... That's a shame. I had hoped your surveillance would have caught sight of them by now." Cell's eyes narrowed down at her for a moment, and his voice held a more severe tone, "You know if they find out about you, you'll be the next they hunt down to kill, don't you?"

"That doesn't change the fact that I don't know where they are." Calliope wasn't sure if she should take that as a threat or a warning, but she frowned with a creased brow. She managed to match his tone, perhaps with an edge of annoyance, "Or my ability to track them... What?"

She trailed off when she noticed Cell's eyes had gone wide and his gaze shot up, through the slanted glass ceiling. Calliope looked between him, and the ceiling a series of times, trying to figure out what grabbed his attention so completely.

"We'll have to finish this conversation another time." Cell suddenly growled and began backing away several steps. "I have to deal with these pests first."

"Wait, what?" Blinking, Calliope looked back up to the glass roof to see if there was anything she could make out. The glaze on the glass made it so she couldn't make out more than the blue sky or patches of white clouds. When she looked back to Cell she barely caught him crouching before shooting straight up through the glass ceiling. Quickly she turned to look fully up to the ceiling and just caught the dark blur darting over the surface. She kept her eyes looking up at the slanted glass. An instant later two more blurs passed further above the glass. There was a sizable hole were Cell had leaped through it, with several shards falling from the edges. The glass was thick enough not to shatter, but there were long cracks from the damage it had taken. After what felt like several long moments, and no more activity, Calliope took a deep breath and found herself shouting, with her fists to the sky. "My fucking ceiling! Goddamnit!"

At her wrist, HoloCat was giving her a concerned look. It had done a good job of remaining quiet during the conversation. But there were unread notifications and the avatar looked ready to cry. The interns really had put a lot of work in perfecting its ability to emote.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat blurted out, "Surveillance systems are still tailing Subject Designated Cell! He's currently heading away from Minnows-"

"Thank you HoloCat! I Know!" Calliope reflexively yelled and realized her system was still working. She continued in the next breath, "Wait! Good! Keep track of him! Stay at a safe distance but keep a visual on Cell as much as you can! Get all the drones tracking him!"

Perhaps that was the cavalry, the Z-warriors, that Cell had felt? Was that enough to scare him off? With the immediate danger gone Calliope found herself gulping down deep breaths, and heard her heart pounding in her ears. Now that there was no longer what amounted to a predator looming over her, she felt herself crashing off whatever had been keeping her going. That was adrenaline, the intellectual in herself reminded. The fight or flight instinct that was meant to keep her alive. An instinct she ignored in favor of _having a damned conversation_.

A few minutes, she decided, sitting against one of the workstations was okay. She chose a spot free of glass and slid down on shaky legs to the floor.

She wasn't killed. That was not what she expected from this situation. It was lucky Cell was so talkative. Hell, it was lucky he wanted to talk in the first place. With any luck, the right people would find him and kill him. After this, she would find a good therapist and parse her feelings.

That bastard broke her beautiful slanted glass ceiling. Calliope was finding this particular fact hard to let go.

"HoloCat, recall four of those fly-bot things back to Nicky Town. Keep an eye out around the lab and alert me for any activity." Calliope said after realizing that Cell was right. If the androids made it to Nicky Town she would be in more danger. The next time she might not get so lucky. After their last discussion, she doubted she would have a chance to try talking. She rubbed her head, and spoke to HoloCat again, "Bring up surveillance, I want to see one of the live feeds. Whichever has the best visual on Cell."

"Okay!" HoloCat chirped sharply, collapsed its avatar, and expanded to show a live feed. It was hard to follow at first, much of the imagery was blurred. But she could catch flashes of a green spotted shape, which occasionally paused to throw what looked light a ball of light over his shoulder. This was the woods outside the city limits, she realized. That was Cell running and firing off shots at his pursuers.

While it didn't feel like she could completely relax, Calliope did manage to calm down. Her legs felt less shaky now, and she was a bit more in control of her anger. The lab had returned back to a tense silence with just the sound of her breathing. She wasn't sure how long she was sitting, watching the surveillance feed when she heard the crunching of glass from the front of the building's entrance. When she looked up she found herself staring at a tall, wide building of a man with a carrot-colored mohawk. Her heart sank when she spotted the Red Ribbon emblem on his armor.

"Doctor Merriweather!" She recognized the voice immediately and sighed in relief again. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Calliope even found a small smile as she pulled herself to her feet.

"I'm guessing you're Android 16?"

"I am." 16 stopped a short way before her, but his eyes were scanning passed her as if he was searching for something. "I was contacted by HoloCat, it said that Cell was here. We were concerned for your safety."

"He _was_ here." She nodded, and pointed a glare at the hole in the glass. "And he left a hole in my _goddamn ceiling_." After a thought, Calliope looked back at 16 with a degree of worry. "Wait, you didn't bring the other androids here, did you?"

"No. I left them at Minnows Farm. I told them to stay there." There were a few heartbeats of silence before 16 continued, "I also told them not to hurt your goats. They are very nice goats."

Calliope had taken a breath to say something else before she was cut off by HoloCat screaming again-

"Doctor Merriweather proximity alert!" She held up her arm to watch HoloCat's avatar pop back up, again glowing red with warning. The avatar paused when it caught sight of Android 16, and blinked back to a happy blue with a smile. "Oh! Hello, Mr. Android 16!"

Calliope really did need to do something about the delays on their alerts.

"Hello, HoloCat." 16 smiled back at the HoloCat avatar.

"Yeah, about that, you said HoloCat called you?" Calliope looked back to the android, and then to her digital assistant, "I didn't tell you to do that."

"No, but you were in potential danger." HoloCat looked back at her, and then down to the ground, it sounding self-conscious. "You went against established directives for evacuation, and Cell was here and he is proven to be a hostile entity to others, and we don't have any protocols to follow in this kind of situation..." It perked up as it continued, "But since I have a rapport with Android 16, I thought it would be appropriate to contact him for help!"

"Okay. I appreciate that HoloCat. And I do appreciate you coming for me, 16." She was safe again, she had a capable ally, and Cell was being dealt with. Hopefully. But Calliope couldn't fully release the knot of anxiety in her gut and frowned "Hey, pull up the surveillance feed up again. We're going to keep an eye on Cell until we can confirm his death."

"Shortly before I arrived, I sensed Cell's energy leaving from this location." 16 spoke and watched the screen when Calliope turned. "He was followed by two others. I believe them to be the fighters trying to find myself and the other androids."

"Yeah. They were the guys I had HoloCat send an automated message to when our system caught sight of him." She watched the stream intensely, trying to pick out what was foliage and what was Cell. Calliope began walking towards the back of the lab with long steps. "Come on. I have more screens in the back. We'll get a better picture of what's going on."

Calliope lead 16 through the main lab, towards the back lab she had spent the last day working in. Considering he was another creation of her father's, she didn't feel as squeamish showing him everything she had been up to. She didn't want to be alone in this anymore. 


	7. The Live Stream Event of Doom

Chapter 6: The Live Stream Event of the Century

~Somewhere on the Outskirts of Nicky Town~

The day had taken an exciting turn. Cell couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he ran full tilt. After breaking through the lab's ceiling, to be sure his would-be pursuers would spot him, he was sure to sprint as fast out of Nicky Town as he had entered its main street earlier. Dodging around trees of the forest, he made sure to keep their attention with the occasional ki blast.

Cell had not expected the Z-warriors of this time capable of tracking him when he had been so careful to keep his power in check, suppressed so as not to be discovered. Perhaps he had not done as good a job of that as he should have. Or maybe they were more clever then he had anticipated them to be. Piccolo was of a cunning nature. The namekian might have been tracking him for some time. It was hard to say.

Not that it mattered now. He had gathered enough energy from the population he hunted to take care of these two. Finding the androids was still his top priority. But that didn't mean he couldn't have a bit of fun, and a little test of his power. Nicky Town would have made a good a place as any to battle, had it not been for the placement of Calliope and her lab. While the building itself was of no consequence, the lone doctor and her safety were not a concessions Cell was ready to make.

It would not do to have her die before she could see him reach his perfect form. Perhaps that would be enough to break that suspicious, cold front she had affected towards him. To fully see the completed work of the Gero bloodline. But there would be time for that. Calliope was still young, and her safe, carefully crafted world away from her family legacy was newly-shattered. He really shouldn't have been surprised that she was bitter towards anything her father was involved in. She had been just as bitter in his time, at first.

He had always known her to be cool, collected, thoughtful. But never outright cold. In that, he saw a challenge in breaking through.

But first things first, he reminded himself. Take care of these two.

Piccolo and Tien were still following him from above. They had made their way out of the city limits of Nicky Town, through the forest, and were approaching the coast. That was far enough, Cell decided. There was a small clearing before the land bled into the ocean. He pushed the limits of his sprint, sprung off a boulder, and dived straight into the waves. Flattening against the bottom, he held himself in place in the current and waited to pounce. As he felt the fighters drawing closer he forced his own flare of power down to a wisp.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

Calliope had lead 16 to the back lab she had set up for her work. In the harsh lights of the lab, she had directed all the extra HoloCats to show the live feed from the bug drones. They had a good view from many angles of Cell's escape from Nicky Town. From her perch on a stool, she leaned with her elbows on the table and intensely examined each screen in turn.

"HoloCat, can we get a feed from one drone on whoever is chasing Cell?" Calliope spoke and clasped her hands together. There was nothing for her to do now but watch. Wait for these other warriors to take care of a problem a future her had nurtured and created. She hated that there was nothing further she could do. It was being handled by the people who were most qualified to deal with this kind of threat, she reminded herself. She had kept Cell talking long enough until they arrived. That would have to be enough. Turning her focus to one of the images as the drone turned itself about, Calliope watched as that stream focused in on the two figures in pursuit. One a green man with elf-ears dressed in purple, the other looked more or less human. She didn't look away from the live stream, but spoke to 16, "Any idea who these guys are?"

"They are Piccolo and Tien." 16 answered after a moment. The android had taken a stance next to Calliope, watching the screens with her.

"Piccolo?... Like the flute?" Calliope blinked and spared a glance at the android, one eyebrow arched. She had remembered there was some kind of green elf in the profiles of the genetic materials collected to make Cell. Trying to remember them all failed with how little sleep she was running on.

"Yes. Like the flute."

"Okay... And he's the green elf-looking guy... Does that other guy have three eyes?" She looked back to the live stream with the warriors, squinting and looking closer at the image. That guy definitely had another eye on his forehead.

"Yes. Piccolo is the green one."

"And 'tri-clopes' would be Tien?"

"Yes."

"And they're just... Random fighter guys who... What, fly around punching bad guys?" Calliope was still having a hard time grasping the other players in this situation. She had spent hours studying these people, the ones who comprised the genetic makeup of 'Lil Squishy', in an attempt to get some kind of understanding of what he was made of. Her attention was drawn back to the other streams, where the forest Cell had been rushing through thinned as he approached the ocean. She watched as the spotted green blur accelerated, leaped off a boulder, and disappeared into the water. The drones stopped, the stream watching the ocean as the water calmed. She spoke mostly to herself, "He went into the water... Is he trying to hide?"

"He is trying to elude them." 16 said in his usual flat tone and frowned at the screen. "I am not able to sense him in the area anymore. It is possible he is hiding his power to be harder to find."

"Or to ambush them..." Calliope's eyes flicked between the screens watching the water. "When he left he said he was going to 'deal with these pests'..." It had held tones of a threat.

"You spoke with Cell?" 16 looked at her when he asked this, and she felt her cheeks heat up at the scrutiny.

"Yeah... He had gotten into the lab when I was trying to leave. He just wanted to talk. I guess to see if I knew where the androids were." She gave a shrug. "I told him I didn't know where 17 and 18 were, and that I didn't have a way to track them." Still feeling uncomfortable, Calliope turned to look at the container where 'Lil' Squishy' was held and continued to explain, "In the future, I apparently helped correct his genetic make-up. He didn't seem interested in hurting me. So we talked. I thought if I could keep him here long enough then someone would arrive..."

16 had watched her while she explained, and followed her gaze to the small tank where the embryo.

"Is that Cell from this time?" He asked, after a moment of silence.

"... Yeah." Calliope nodded.

"Why have you not killed it?" 16 followed up immediately, with a harsher tone that made her whip her head around to stare at him.

"Because!..." She started strongly but had to take a moment to collect her reasoning. Calliope hadn't had to explain it to anyone but herself. Sighing, she continued with a stern tone, "Because that is not what I do."

"It is dangerous to keep it-"

"No. It's not." Calliope cut 16 off, her reasoning seemed sound to her again. Enough to be able to articulate it. "As it is now he's not going to be able to grow into what Cell from the future is. I am not working on the project as my father intended me to. I am providing basic life support and protection, nothing more. I just..." She felt the conviction fading. But 16 had a gentle nature that she trusted, and she went on further. "I already unplugged him from life support once and thought he was dead. Took him back here, and it turns out he's still alive. It didn't feel right to kill him again."

16 held his stare on Calliope for several more moments and then nodded. He turned his eyes back to the live stream, where the fighters were hovering over the water in search of Cell. Eventually, he spoke, the harsh tones had left his voice. "I understand."

The two went back to watching the live stream of events in silence. She never expected to be having this kind of conversation with one of her father's creations. Especially while trying to keep an eye on another of his creations. For several long minutes, there was not much action to be seen on the multiple screens. The spot in the ocean where Cell had entered looked picturesque and calm with the waves, and the two fighters hovering above and trying to find their target.

"Come on... Come on..." Calliope found herself muttering, begging something to happen. Exhausted and feeling frantic, she just wanted this situation to be over. The drones had spread out to watch not only the water but the surrounding area, Piccolo and Tien in clear view on a few feeds. They appeared to have difficulty with finding Cell as well. It must have been like he disappeared into thin air.

When it happened it was so fast Calliope could barely register what happened. The two fighters looked to have given up on their chase, their quarry had eluded them and was nowhere in sight. It looked like they were going to split up, cover opposite directions to try and find Cell. The Tien was already heading another direction while Piccolo gave a pensive once-over to the area. Below the ocean's waves erupted and a deep green blur shot out. Calliope gave a small cry of fright at the sudden escalation of action.

It looked like Piccolo was hit with a flurry of punches and kicks that Calliope could not visually keep up with as all the drones adjusted to keep their cameras on the targets. Her eyes flicked between all the feeds, trying to see it all. It looked like Cell really did get the jump on his pursuers, by the way his opponent could barely get an attack in. Suddenly the two broke apart, still airborne, it looked like they were having some kind of conversation, Piccolo was clearly yelling. Cell had spread his arms wide and flared his wings out and was speaking as well.

"HoloCat

do the bug-drones have any kind of audio feed we can get with the video?" Calliope didn't take her eyes off the screen and felt a panic set in as HoloCat confirmed and the sound began feeding through with the video. As the drones were a safe distance away from the fighters she had to lean in to hear what was being said. There was a brief flash in the video, and it looked like Cell was beginning to glow with a yellowish flare.

"-ow many? How many people?!" Piccolo was speaking now, and his horrified tone twisted a fresh knot of anxiety in her stomach. All the time she had spent in the lab, sequestered with research in a ghost town, it was hard to remember that Cell had indeed been hunting and killing. No, not just killing, but consuming people.

"Enough." Was Cell's simple answer, in a sinister tone, a quiet chuckle underlying the response. The next second his opponent was screaming wordlessly, and fired several blasts of energy. The live stream showed just a cloud of smoke where Cell had been, and an instant later a green blur burst to once again attack Piccolo. It was difficult for Calliope to follow the action, they moved too fast for her untrained eyes to understand what she was watching.

"Cell is toying with him." 16 suddenly said, with none of his usual gentle tones. She spared a glance at him to see that his neutral expression had turned sober. She looked back to the video feed in time to see Piccolo take a harsh kick that sent him crashing to the ground. "I do not believe Piccolo is strong enough to defeat Cell."

Calliope could not bring herself to speak, just as she couldn't bring her eyes away from the live stream. The drones still focused on Cell, hovering and glowing in the air, while one feed captured Piccolo struggling to get up from the ground where his body's impact caused a small crater to form. Just how hard and fast did he land? That sort of forceful impact should have been enough to kill him. In an instant Cell disappeared from the feed, only to appear on the ground, resuming the battle with Piccolo. The latter appeared clearly worn out at this point. The other drones scrambled to reorient themselves on their target.

"Well, where the Hell did the tri-clopse go?" Calliope suddenly wondered out loud. Surely Tien would be able to either see or feel his friend getting beat. Weren't these guys able to 'feel' one another's energy or something? "HoloCat get two drones to see where the other guy went."

Her eyes flicked between the two drones searching for Tien, and the current images that were all watching the fight on the ground.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat chirped urgently, and continued before she had a chance to answer it, "There are additional unknown entities!"

"Wait, what?" She held a spark of home as she looked at the feed from two drones that had spotted two more figures in the air. They had stopped not too far from the battle. Were they more fighters that were alerted to Cell's position? The drones were able to zoom in enough to get a better image of the two, one an attractive blond woman, the other a smirking dark haired man. Beside her 16 suddenly slammed his hands down on the table.

"They should not be there!" 16 spoke loudly and turned to lock eyes with Calliope, clearly concerned. "Do the drones have radio communication? We need to tell 17 and 18 to leave!"

"I-I don't know.. Wait. Those are the other androids? For fuck's sake, they have terrible timing!" Calliope felt her stomach drop with renewed horror. "HoloCat do we have any way to output audio through the drones?"

"I'm sorry Doctor Merriweather, we don't!" As soon as the words left HoloCat's device 16 was already turning and began to leave. The avatar blinked on a sad face and spoke up, "Mr. Android 16! Where are you going?" At this point, Calliope noticed 16's retreat and turned on the stool to look to the android as well. He looked between the young doctor and the blue avatar, both looking concerned.

"I must go. 17 and 18 are in danger. I will try to keep them safe from Cell." 16 said simply.

"Cell is listed as a hostile entity! It could be dangerous!" HoloCat's normally cheerful voice was laced with worry.

"HoloCat, its okay," Calliope spoke before HoloCat could object anymore. She nodded to 16, who returned the gesture.

"It would be best if you left, too, Doctor." 16 said as he paused at the doorway. "If Cell is not stopped he may come back for you. I cannot guarantee your safety."

"Yeah. I know." She gave him a small, sad smile. There was no way she was going anywhere.

The android left without another word, and Calliope was once again alone. Going back to face the live feed, she turned her attention to the ongoing fight. It was at a point where it was clearly a one-sided beatdown. She watched with her brow knitted together and leaned with her elbows on the table again. There was a brief break in the combat, where the two broke apart by several meters, and before she could wonder what they were doing Piccolo was throwing dozens of those energy balls again. Smoke and debris rose around Cell to cloud and obscure him again. For an instant, Calliope thought that might be enough to cause some damage. What could survive these kinds of attacks these two were trading? From the cloud of dust and smoke Cell shot out again, and landed what looked like a roundhouse kick to Piccolo's neck. There was no mistaking the sudden limpness in his body. In the next second, she watched the creation her future self-aided grab the body, and after a brief flare blasted a shot of energy through Piccolo's torso.

Calliope drew in a sharp breath and covered her mouth with her hands. She watched with wide eyes, dismayed at the show she was privy to. Watching someone die was not something she had experience in. As appealing as hiding under a desk and crying was at that moment, she stayed. This was a vigil she felt responsible to stay for.

'Watching until confirming Cell's death' seemed like wishful thinking at this point.

~Minnows BioSolutions Auxiliary Lab~

After the evacuation, it was difficult to get the collection of displaced staff back to work. The auxiliary lab was a little smaller than the main lab in Nicky Town but held the supplies and older equipment that the scientists and researchers would need for their craft. The building was a two-story concrete and steel construction. There was no large ceiling made of glass to let in the light, and fewer windows. Even though every room was well lit with bright lights, it somehow felt darker and smaller without the sunlight.

The IT department laid claim to a room next to the servers near the back. Jay had given his team quite a bit of leeway in their duties. He wasn't even encouraging them to 'look busy' as he normally would on a slow day with few support tickets to fix things. He had taken to sequestering himself in a corner of the room, which was blocked off by cubicle walls, and held several older computers on its L-shaped desk. With the three monitors and his own HoloCat, Jay could not bring himself to focus on his usual job once they were settled in. There was nothing dire enough to require his attention, especially when the attitude of the lab as a whole was so distracted. Not only had their own home become subject to an evacuation, but there were the continued reports of massive disappearances along evacuation routes. Their head of the board was nowhere to be found- allegedly visiting with her ailing grandfather, a rumor Jay had started and the rest of IT helped propagate at his behest. Business-as-usual was not going to happen with these people.

Nash was the only other one Jay had told the truth about the whole situation. Calliope's grandfather, Doctor Gero, the androids, Cell from the future the fact that their boss was a clone, and that she chose to stay in the evacuation zone. How could he not inform the ex-hacker, after the evacuation that he helped instigate? Nash was just as involved as he was.

From his closed-off cubicle, Jay kept searching between the different news stories coming out. Every few minutes he checked his emails for a new message from Calliope. She had been sending him an alert every hour to make sure he knew she was okay. It had been hours since her last message. She had set it up so that any alerts from her local HoloCat would not route to the to the Auxiliary lab. There was no way to tell if she was genuinely in danger. While Jay had been assured that she would be as safe and cautious as possible, he couldn't help but worry.

"HoloCat put a call through to Doctor Merriweather." Jay decided that it was time to personally check in with his friend. Calliope had been known for not only being stubborn but easily getting lost in her work. It was entirely possible that she lost track of time. He set the call to go through a wireless earpiece, for the sake of some privacy in the office. The call didn't finish the first ring when it connected.

" _Jay_?" It was Doctor Merriweather, but her usual stoic tone was filled with an unsure tremor. This wasn't the normally stressed tones she took on after neglecting to sleep or a particularly difficult day. It certainly wasn't the annoyed tones she would use if her work was interrupted.

"Yeah, it's me. Is everything okay?" He leaned into the desk, listening to the quiet noises on the other end. After several moments with no answer, he blurted out in concern, "Calliope! Are you okay?"

" _I... Yeah. I'm fine._ " There wasn't enough conviction in her voice to convince Jay. Calliope continued after a moment, with a worrying amount of shakiness, " _Um, Jay, it's bad. It's really bad_."

"Hey, it's okay Cal. Just tell me what happened." Jay tried to keep himself steady and calm for his boss' sake. Sometimes it was hard to remember that she was a 16-year-old girl. His own younger sister was so emotional at that age. Even so, it

must have been something significant to rattle her like this. On the other end of the line, he heard Calliope sigh.

"... _Are you alone?"_

"Yeah, I'm in a back office. We can speak freely."

".. _.Well... I met 'Big Squishy'..._ "

"You _what_?!" Jay half-shouted, and immediately continued in a lower tone of voice. He didn't need this conversation to be overheard. "Are you hurt? Did he try to eat you?"

" _I'm fine Jay. He just... Wanted to talk? He didn't seem interested in eating me. Look, that doesn't matter right now-_ "

"What the fuck do you mean it doesn't matter?" He harshly whispered, his mind reeling at the thought of his boss just having a conversation, with words, with the monster that had been stalking the region.

" _Jay. Shut up._ " Calliope had recovered some of her normal voice, and she went on to explain in a tumbled ramble. _"He left, jumped right through the ceiling in the main lab. I had had HoloCat set up alerts if Cell was spotted, and after he was here those fighter guys came to fight him. I'm pretty sure one of them is dead. The androids are in the same area, 16 ran off to go get them to safety-"_

"Whoa! Whoa boss, slow down!" Jay felt as if he had missed many things since they parted ways. There were details and events that were important to the strange plot he felt involved in that he needed. He was still reeling from hearing the outlandish danger she had faced.

" _I have those drone bugs watching Cell, the androids, and looking for the tri-clopse. Can you link into the video feed?_ "

"Tri-clopse? Wh- Yeah, give me a minute." She had an actual live feed on the action? Jay could not miss out on that. He went to work at the computers in his make-shift office and got a connection to the HoloCat Collective at the Nicky Town lab. Soon he had the screens filled with the same feed Calliope had been watching.

One of the drones was focused on two figures who were just floating in the air. Two of the feeds looked like their drones were just coming across a man that had a third eye on his forehead. He wore a shocked expression for a moment before quickly flying off the screen. The drones were quick to turn about to keep an eye on him. The remaining feeds were all focused on the tall figure Jay knew had to be Cell. He cut a tall, fearsome figure with a long tail whipping back and forth. In one hand, Cell was grasping a green man by the front of his purple gi, and it took Jay's eyes to notice the hole in the latter's chest.

"Is that dude _dead_!?" Jay forgot to control the volume of his voice for a moment. He quickly poked his head up over the cubicle wall to see if anyone in the office had noticed his outburst. There were only two other people in the section of office that he could spot; an intern that habitually worked with a headset blaring loud music, and Nash, who immediately locked eyes with Jay, and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. It was a good thing his department was scattered to other activities. Likely taking a long lunch, given that there was not much work for them to do today. He gave a sharp nod as an invitation to Nash, who jumped up to head back to the cubicle.

Nash was a tall stick of a man with a close-shaven head and had a youthful face with what some described as 'lifeless' eyes. He usually looked tired and bored of whatever activity he was engaged in. As he slid into the cubicle, however, his eyes took on an alert quality Jay did not get to see often. Jay motioned to the earpiece he was wearing.

" _Yeah, that's the one I was talking about... Piccolo_." On the other end of the line, Calliope's voice was quiet then.

"Shit... Hey," Jay looked over to his coworker as he fitted a similar wireless earpiece into his ear. "I'm conferencing in Nash. It's cool, I told him everything."

" _Oh, okay. Nash? You there?"_

"I'm here, boss lady." Nash affected a more professional tone than he ever did during his actual job, and sat down in another office chair next to Jay. His eyes scanned between all the screens. "Is that Cell?"

" _The tall green one with a tail. Yeah, that's him._ " Calliope said as they collectively watched Cell toss Piccolo's body with minimal effort into the ocean. The trio fell silent. They watched the green figure turn about as if searching for something, his gaze looking to the horizons.

Suddenly Cell froze, his eyes locking onto something of interest. From the sound they could hear from the drones, they made out a low, sinister chuckle. The next second he launched himself into the air and promptly flew in the direction of his gaze. Most of the drones needed time to correct their angle to continue to keep sight on their target, except for the one in his path. This last one watched Cell accelerate rapidly, first larger in its frame, before is feed was engulfed in blackness.

"Did we lose a drone?" Jay wondered out loud. As if to answer his question, there came a much clearer sound over the stream. The image was still dark, but a few blurs hinted to some light.

" _Well hello there, Calliope._ " The rough voice purred over the audio.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

A chill ran down Calliope's spine as she listened to the audio from the captured drone. She found herself sitting upright, and forced herself to take even breaths. She did not expect Cell to be able to see the drones in the area, they were built specifically for stealth. It felt like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and wasn't sure what reaction to expect from him. Perhaps leaving the lab was a good idea.

" _I'm glad to see you're still watching. You'll want to pay close attention now because I'm about to put on quite a show_." Cell's voice continued over the drone, with a growing excitement. " _What a treat that you'll have front row seats to see me achieve my perfect form_!"

The darkness over that drone suddenly lifted, showing the blue sky in the background with Cell looming above it. From the angle, it looked like the drone must have been in the palm of his hand. Not a second later the drone's footage looked like it was tumbling away before it was able to right itself, and continue tailing its intended target. Suddenly she understood. He must have spotted the androids. Her eyes went over to the other screens where the singular drone was still keeping an eye on the two androids.

They had just been floating there watching the battle between Piccolo and Cell. If the drones had the ability to communicate Calliope probably would have yelled at them.

" _Cal_..." Jay started nervously over the call. " _He... Ah... He was just talking to you.._."

"Yeah, he's a really talkative guy when you get him to stop _murdering_ for five minutes..." Calliope sighed with no small amount of exasperation.

" _Okay but where is he going?_ " Nash's voice came on next. He sounded lost.

"He's going after the androids! They're the stupid goddamn lumps that are just floating there like fucking potatoes!" Calliope yelled, mostly to the screens she watched as the two androids failed to realize the danger they were in. She gritted her teeth watching Cell stop before the clueless 17 and 18. Once again he presented himself, and they listened as he offered the androids the opportunity to become the ultimate weapon. "Dammit, I'm going to conference in 16, he's got to be getting close to them now."

" _Wait, who_?" Once again Nash asked.

"He's one of the other androids my grandpa- eh... father... made. He's really cool." She explained quickly while HoloCat set up the connection. As soon as it showed the call as active Calliope continued without a normal salutation, "16? Are you there?"

" _Yes Doctor Merriweather. Has there been a development with Cell?_ " 16's voice came over, sounding as sober as when he had left.

"Piccolo is down, probably dead. He's going after 17 and 18 now!"

" _Can I just say that Cell is so... so damn creepy!_ " Jay cut in, sounding nervous and stressed by what he was witness to.

" _He's literally having the most creepy conversation with these potatoes right now_." Nash said in an amazed tone, professionalism forgotten at that moment.

"We're in a conference call with Jay and Nash, they're from my IT department." She winced as she introduced her staff.

". _.. Cell is talking to potatoes?_ " 16 asked, now sounding as confused as his robotic tones allowed.

"Not actual potatoes. 17 and 18. They just watched the whole fight with Piccolo like dumb asses." Perhaps a conference call with everyone was a bad idea. It was still better than watching this alone. Calliope glared at the screen as the situation developed. 17 had taken exception to become an ultimate weapon at the behest of Doctor Gero. "Oh, great. Now 17 is fighting Cell. So at least I wasn't wrong in calling him stupid."

 _"I am not far from them. 17 is not strong enough to take Cell on alone!"_

" _Dude. This is better than any MMA fight I've ever seen._ " Jay sounded amazed. She doubted he could keep up with every move of the fight either. 17 and Cell fought with such ferocity and speed, but after a few minutes, it was clear who was winning.

 _"I must drop out of this call. I need all my attention to fight Cell."_

"Okay. Good luck 16." Calliope nodded even though there was no one there to see her. 17 was starting to look beat up from their fight. She couldn't believe that 18 was just standing there watching this.

" _Be careful Mr. Android 16!_ " Her HoloCat chirped quickly.

" _We're all rooting for you Mr. 16_!" Jay also spoke up.

" _Deliver the smackdown metal man!"_ Nash got the last encouragement in before 16 dropped out of the call. Once the android dropped out of the call he mentioned as an afterthought. " _He seems nice._ "

Normally, Calliope would have chided them for unprofessional conduct during a conference call. Considering this was not a normal situation, she let it slide. She was too preoccupied watching 17 be smacked around. In motions that were too quick

for her eyes to follow despite the multiple drones and their different angles, somehow Cell had come down hard on the android from above. 17 looked to drop half-way to the ground. His attacker was suddenly behind him, that long tail's end dilated to a large funnel.

"No, no, no, _no_.." Calliope could only watch, once again, anxious at the story playing out for her. 17 was beaten to a pulp, though still struggled with his hands on the rip of that tail's opening, while above him Cell cackled with glee.

" _Oh shit! He's going in with the tail_!" Jay was not able to keep his composure as well.

For a moment Calliope held out hope that 16 would be able to intervene. Or perhaps Tien was close enough to do something. Not everyone would sit on the sidelines and just _watch_ the struggle, right? She spared a frantic glance at all the other screens. 16 still hadn't arrived. 18 looked paralyzed with fear of what was happening. Tien was still flying his way back to the battle. Too late, she realized, when an instant later that funnel-ended tail shoved its way down over 17's form. She could do little more than stare in dejected horror, and her IT department's cries of terror sounded far off as she watched a glow envelope Cell. The drone's cameras were blinded by a light, and it was impossible to distinguish anything for several long moments. Three of the drones that were closest to Cell lost their feeds, this time instead of blackness a notice that connection was lost.

" _Shit_." Nash was the first to be able to say anything as the light died down enough for the drones to be able to get a clear picture. Cell's figure had changed, he had become stockier and still crackled with energy.

" _He's even creepier than before_..." Next Jay was able to comment, clearly, he was examining the feeds as close as she was. Calliope agreed with the assessment.

"HoloCat get those remaining drones further out from the fighting! I don't want to lose any more!" She was already unable to do anything else. Calliope would not stand to be blind in this situation.

Cell was halfway to a final form of unfathomable power. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect if he was able to reach that level. As the thought passed through her mind, she watched as he looked straight into one of the drones' cameras and gave a dark grin before turning his attention back to 18. Quite a show indeed. If she had the choice Calliope wouldn't have kept watching. This live stream of events mocked everything she had been trying to do.

A blur of light suddenly slammed into the side of Cell's head. It was enough to derail his slow approach to 18 for the moment. Too late to save 17, but in time for the remaining android, 16 was suddenly there. The bulky android placed himself squarely between Cell and 18.

"There you are 16..." Calliope wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. But this had already gone farther than it should have. She had no way of knowing if her android friend was capable of stopping Cell. It was clear when 16 received a blast to his skull, leaving a mess of wiring and metal open to the air, that he was not. The trio on the call gave a collective reaction of gasps and crying out.

"Ahhh!" Even her own HoloCat gave a cry of distress at the turn of events.

" _Metal man no!_ " Nash was the first to find words as they watched 16 continue to try his best to keep Cell at bay, behind him, 18 refused to leave her friend's alone.

" _The blond one is the other one Cell wants, right?_ " Jay asked uselessly, but quickly picked up before anyone else could, " _Why the hell is she still there! Fly away! Go! Why isn't she going?_!" Though not in those exact words, her IT was capturing all of Calliope's thoughts.

An interruption came in the form of a barrage of energy blasts slamming into Cell from behind. For several tense moments, there was little more than smoke where the bio-android had been. The drones focused on them were far out enough to see 16 and 18 taking advantage of the situation, the blonde helping her friend away as fast as they could manage. Calliope searched the other feeds to see where the attack had come from.

" _Oh! It's tri-clopse!_ " Jay called with some excitement, and they caught a brief glimpse of Tien's approach.

" _Ooh 'tri-clopse' cause he's got three eyes, okay._ " Nash couldn't stop from commenting.

The two drones that were trying to keep their sights on him were able to focus when he stopped mid-air. From what could be made out he was not level with Cell and the androids, but far above. They watched as he arranged his hands in some kind of triangle. None of the spectators had a chance to wonder out loud what he was doing before another drone went offline. The remaining drones watched as a wave of energy landed on Cell with enough force to drive him to the ground below.

"Damn! Tri-clopse has got some moves!" Jay whooped, followed by clapping and giving a jolly laugh. At least someone was enjoying the show.

"Keep a drone on the androids, HoloCat. The rest keep in range of Cell." Calliope didn't allow herself to relax. There had been too many reversals today for her to need anything less than absolute certainty that the threat was eliminated. After second thought, remembering how Cell had been able to spot the drones in the air, she gave an additional directive. "And that drone for the androids needs to be, like, ON the androids. Get it in 16's head hole if you have to. I want it well-hidden."

She kept her eyes on the remaining five videos as Tien hit Cell again, and again, and again with the same attack. On another screen, the drone had caught up with the androids, whose pace was hampered by 16's injuries. The drone's feed showed it land on 16's shoulder and crawled upwards until it was nestled among the wires and circuitry. It still had a good sight on their direction, and the other drones were able to keep an eye on Tien's attacks against Cell.

After several minutes of sustained waves against Cell, the attacks suddenly stopped. They were able to see a massive hole carved into the very earth. The drones did fly in closer after a moment when it was clear it was safe, one monitoring an exhausted-looking Tien. He looked like he was barely holding on to consciousness, and was breathing heavily. There was an anxious silence as they watched him finally give in to the darkness and fell to the earth.

" _Tri-clopse is down..._ " Nash spoke up somberly. "... _Is Cell dead_?"

She knew that all their attention shifted over to the other drones, trying to see down into the blackness. Holding her breath, she watched as the drones flew in for a better image. On closer inspection of the hole, much to Calliope's distress, Cell floated up with barely a scratch.

"Goddammit!" She said upon seeing this, and she slammed a fist on the tabletop in frustration. If she had the ability Calliope would have flown out there herself and at least be able to attempt to do something more then watch. She was nothing more than a spectator at this point. Once again feeling infuriated, she couldn't stand to sit and watch at that moment.

There was nothing she could do. Calliope gingerly got up from her seat and found herself pacing between the far wall and back again while angrily talking to herself. It felt like the situation was getting worse and worse.

"Of course a blast that's strong enough to carve into the earth isn't strong enough to kill off this _asshat_ ," Calliope said with a wry, mocking lack at herself. "Ooh yeah because dumb-bitch Future Me probably put as much work as she possibly could into getting Lil' Squishy to work!"

" _Boss_?" Nash was trying to tell her something. Calliope was not listening, and could not bear to look at the screen a the moment.

What Calliope wanted to do right now was yell at the walls.

"-but overlooked the fact that she was helping to create a psychotic, mass-murdering cicada monster!"

" _Who the fuck... Cal! Are you seeing this?_ " Jay was trying to get through to her, but Calliope was more concerned with ranting to no one.

"- And I know I don't do anything half-ass! Why would I half-ass a killer chimera?!"

 _"Ah, Cal!"_

"Why the Hell not?! Great job Future-Me! _You dumb bitch!_ " Calliope spat the last words before her friends finally got through to her again.

" _Cal, Cell is talking at you again_!" Jay yelling this over her own thoughts made Calliope stop. She immediately went back to the lab station and return her attention to the live stream. Sure enough, Cell's new form filled one of the drones feed as he spoke. It looked as if he was holding the drone in his hand, but was looking around frantically.

" _-a minor setback. I'm sure that we'll be able to find her again_." At this point, Cell looked back down at the drone, and she froze up as if he was looking directly at her. " _You wouldn't have happened to see where they went, did you?_ "

"...HoloCat, can you make the drone shake its head for 'no'?" Calliope said slowly and watched as that drone's feed looked to gently pan side to side.

" _Aw, well, I bet you couldn't keep your eyes off of my new form_." At this point, Cell released the drone and backed far enough away from the camera to show most of his body in the camera. Calliope stared at the video, suddenly dumbfounded. " _It is a great improvement over the last one_."

"... _Is he flexing for you, Boss?_ " Nash asked several moments of the feed filled with Cell showing off his new arms, new chest, back, and everything else. He threw a few quick tests punches.

" _He is most definitely flexing for you, Cal_." Jay said next.

"Yeah... I guess he has kind of a... Maybe a _thing_ for future-me?" Calliope winced as she watched the live stream. "I don't... I don't really know what to tell you..."

" _And I'm sure my perfect form will be magnificent... Now! There are not many places she could have gone.._." At this point, Cell had turned his attention back to trying to locate android 18.

What followed must have been an hour of the drones following their target, as he zipped between the collection of islands of the area. First, he was only screaming,

to the point where the conference call had muted the audio after a few minutes of it. After a while Calliope had taken leave of the room, assuming it would likely go on for some time. It was the small break she needed to wash her face, brush her hair out before putting it back up, and change into clean clothes. The Minnows Farm would be her next stop if she needed to leave, and she dressed appropriately in jeans, black tank top, and work boots. She listened to the conference call, where Jay and Nash gave a play-by-play and commentary on Cell's activities. Thus far they had been limited to screaming at the islands below, trying in vain to coax 18 out of hiding.

On her way out of her office, she snagged her lab coat to keep off the chill of the lab, though she did cuff the sleeves above her elbow. Intending to go back to the HoloCat Collective where the live stream was still showing, Calliope suddenly stopped. There was the faintest noise from outside drew her attention, it sounded like a far-off explosion. The building gave a faint creak, and she could feel the ground tremble beneath her feet.

" _Shiiit! Cal! He's blowing up islands now!_ " Jay shouted as soon as the noise started.

Calliope briefly considered the hallway back to the lab. In a moment's decision, she turned right around and jogged the other way, towards the stairs that went up another level to the roof access. Unlocking and pushing through the door she stood on the otherwise flat roof. The long rectangle sloped off to what remained of her glass roof on one side. She looked around the horizon and froze at the glow off in the distance. Soon another explosion and glow lit up not far from the original spot, followed by another tremor. Outside Calliope could feel the impact in the air, as if during a mighty thunderstorm. For several minutes she waited and watched in terrified awe as more explosions sounded in the distance. The light from each one barely died out before another went off.

" _Who the Hell are these guys?_ " The question Nash asked in such a way that drew her attention back to the call. Where before the IT nerds were just making general commentary about Cell blowing up islands, his tone hinted at a significant change in the conversation.

" _Well that purple-haired one is Trunks, he's the dude from the future I told you about. At least I'm pretty sure it is? He must have gotten extensions in his hair_.." Jay was quick to answer, and continued with an odd tone, " _I'm not sure who the angry spiky-haired guy is._."

"What was that about Trunks and a 'spiky-haired guy'?" Calliope asked through HoloCat but kept her eyes on the far-off clouds of smoke. There was a spark of hope then if Trunks and whoever this other guy was were able to take on Cell.

" _Cal are you watching this?! The angry spiky guy is_ _ **yelling**_ _and_ _ **glowing**_ _!_ " Jay cut in quickly.

" _Aw yeah! Worldstar!_ " This was shouted shortly after by a suddenly excited Nash before Calliope could answer. She did put up the video feeds that were tailing Cell on HoloCat but did not budge from the rooftop. Two more drones had been lost. Three were left to watch.

The drones were still watching from a safe distance but were close enough to see the newest fight that had broken out. This time Cell appeared to be the one having a difficult time landing blows on his opponent; a much shorter, well-muscled blonde who was, as Jay explained, literally glowing. With fewer drones in the air, there was enough room on HoloCat's screen to split between the five streams. She forced it to show one of the fight between Cell and the spiky-haired man -another one she thought she recognized from the profiles of the collected genetic material- and the other focused on the bug hiding on 16. The view from the android made her stomach drop a bit.

16 was still accompanied by 18. They were on the same island that the battle was happening.

"Well with any luck the angry blond will be able to kill Cell... He's certainly doing a better job than the others so far..." Calliope watched, anxious but also allowed a small degree of excitement for herself. Perhaps it was almost over. She could clean up her workspace, hide all her father's work back at the mountain lab, and go to her staff at the auxiliary lab. If Cell could be killed then 18 would surely follow suit. She could rebuild her safe world and clean up the remnants of her father's experiments.

Her life could still go back to normal.

"Oh man, that angry dude is bringing the pain!" Jay commented after Cell was dealt a particularly painful-looking blow to the stomach that left him doubled over.

"Come on... Kick some ass, random blond guy..." She said mostly to herself as much as the conference call. Jay and Nash were about as useful as she was at this point, but having others seeing and knowing what was happening helped. As much as Calliope didn't want to admit it, their levity helped make the crushing reality feel manageable.

They had brought the audio back up on the live stream to try and catch any form of conversation. This time it was much easier as Cell and the spiky-haired blond -who was named Vegeta, according to the bio-android at least- communicated to each other mostly by screaming. The fight had gotten to the point where Vegeta was giving the level of beatdown that Piccolo had received earlier, so much so that the drones had a hard time keeping up with the action. Collectively the trio had a hard time keeping up with the blows and how far Cell had been thrown with this latest attack.

" _Holy shit this guy is literally breaking small mountains with Cell!_ " Jay spoke with the kind of excitement that was usually reserved for fanboying over one of his many interests. " _I mean I think it might be safe to break out the drinks after this!_ "

" _Yeah, if Vegeta stops standing there letting him whine._ " Nash said with an edge of annoyance. " _Either way, I'm definitely going to need a drink._ "

"Wait. What the Hell... Where is Cell going." Calliope frowned as she watched the action take a pause. After a short conversation with Vegeta, Cell looked to be taking off and flying away from the fight. One of the drones flew in a little closer, but not enough to know exactly what had transpired. If she understood correctly what was happening, he was given leave to find and absorb android 18. "No, no, you stupid son of a bitch what are you doing?!"

" _Uh, dude, Trunks is a blond now?_ " Jay's voice held an edge of worry and confusion. The drones had to re-position themselves to keep focused on the action but showed Trunks – dressed differently and sporting a spiky new hairstyle- blocking Cell's path. " _I mean at least he's trying to take care of business_."

" _Whoa! What happened? Where did he go?_ " Nash was trying to find Cell after a harsh strike sent him crashing into the ground. Again the drones had to readjust, scrambling to find their target. For a brief moment, Cell filled the screen on one drone before passing the drone by, forcing it to try and turn about to keep him in sight.

The other drones tracked Cell as he flew upwards and background filled with the summer sky. What started as a glow as bright as the sun grew to be so bright that the drones could not make out any further detail. The screen remained consumed with light for several moments before it died down, and the drones were trying to spot Cell again. One of the screens had gone black, the signal was not indicated as being lost.

" _Did we lose another drone?_ " Jay had the same question she did. The feed was a little easier to follow, and the drones were able to settle on Cell and his slow approach to Android 18. Krillin and the damaged 16 were there as well, all of them staying grounded with their eyes shut tight. Was that what that light flare had been? Something like a flash-bang grenade that left them blinded?

"No.. Goddammit, no." Calliope was shaking her head now. Krillin was easily knocked to the side by some kind of energy blast. She and her IT staff watched in silent horror as they watched Cell's tail dilated a the end into a funnel. In some kind of defiant effort against the end, 18 had launched herself blindly forward.

" _... Oh. Oh, fuck..._ " She barely registered Jay speaking, as once again Calliope had to watch another android consumed by that funnel-ended tail. Like with the previous transformation, Cell began to glow and crackle with energy. This time growing brighter and brighter until the remaining drones' cameras again could not catch any detail.

The wind picked up enough that her lab coat flapped out behind her. Calliope looked up to realize the sky was darkening. In the distance that she had been watching earlier, she watched as a spot among the island was glowing. The intensity of the light and wind grew until she could no longer bear to look at it. Around her, the air felt charged and she was well aware of how hard her heart was beating against her ribs. It felt like minutes before the light started to fade and for the wind to die down.

When the darkness lifted from the sky, she quickly looked back the drones' feed. The screen had gone dark, all but one drone indicated a loss of signal. No doubt destroyed by the energetic transformation they had been witness to. Calliope was about to direct half of the remaining drones that had been around her lab to fly out and see what was going on when the single drone left with signal suddenly bloomed with light and image.

It took a moment to understand what she was looking at, and soon she frowned deeply to herself. What had to be Cell's final form, once again looking like the drone was in the palm of his hand filled the screen. His form now looked to have some form of albinism, between the sharp pink eyes and ivory skin, though with the same speckle-patterned armor. Cell's gaze shifted to give the camera a meaningful look and a wolfish grin. The drone fluttered

backward several meters, and he turned his attention away from the drone.

It felt like her heart jumped into her throat then. Calliope stared at the live stream footage with a revived horror. With how much she had seen today she would have thought that feeling would start to dull. Her shoulders slumped down, and her knees gave out under her.

Sitting on the rooftop, she couldn't help but think to herself about what she had been doing a week before. It had been a beautiful summer day, and she had been worried about having to put her grandfather in a nursing home.

'What a fucking joke.' She thought to herself. 


	8. Technically Not Kidnapped

Chapter 7: Technically Not Kidnapped

~Minnows Auxiliary Lab~

Jay muted himself from the conference call. He had to push back from the desk to lean forward and put his head between his knees.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god..." The head of IT could be heard muttering to himself. He was feeling a panic attack coming on and was not prepared to continue watching the live stream. Just a few minutes to calm down, he reasoned with himself, that's all he needed.

"Dude. This is like a fucked up opera but with a lot more physical violence..." Nash said he was still entranced by the events he had seen. He then looked between the screen and Jay a couple of times, before settling back on the screen. "... Is it weird that Cell is now, like, super handsome?"

"Nash! Dude! Please don't make it any weirder than it already is!" Jay's voice was muffled from its place between his knees. Taking a few deep breaths he finally pulled himself up, rubbed his face, and pulled himself back to the desk to resume watching the feed from the remaining drone. "But yeah, I was kinda expecting his final form to be like, more creepy... What'd I miss?"

"Short man threw a light-frisbee that did dick-all, then his ass got one-shot. Then Cell was having some words with Veg but we're a bit too far out to hear them. Then he kicked Cell in the neck and it didn't do anything, and then Cell kicked Veg through, like, at least 2 mountains. So now Veg is glowing and yelling a lot." Nash explained at an excited pace, one of his hands fiddling with a pen.

"Cal, you still there?" Jay pressed his earpiece back in place and watched the current actions with no small amount of anxiety. He could only imagine how she was handling this situation. After a moment, and no response, he asked a little louder, "Calliope? Everything okay over there?"

" _I'm here. I'm fine._ " She spoke up after a moment, with a distinct annoyance in her tone. " _These goddamned stupid assholes are going to cause the end of the world, I just fucking know it_..."

They exchanged a look, neither of them prepared to deny this claim. The trio fell silent again as they watched Vegeta launch some kind of massive beam of energy that once again left the drone blinded by the light. When the dust had settled and the camera was able to see in detail again, Nash was the first one to give out an excited cry.

"Daaamn Cell got fucked up!" Nash gave a small fist pump as they collectively observed Cell, who was now missing an arm, and a large portion of his torso. "Boss, are you seeing this?"

" _Yeah Nash. I'm still watching._ " Calliope did not share the same mood they were enjoying at that moment. Jay knew she likely wouldn't count anything less than the complete destruction of her father's work as a win.

The excitement in the office drained and replaced with further horror then. The drone watched, from a safe distance, as a new arm and partial chest explosively regrew from Cell's body. Jay stared in horror, Nash gave a short cry of shock, and after a moment they heard Calliope sigh over the call.

" _Well... That turned out about as well as I expected it to._.." Calliope said wryly.

"How in the Hell are you suppose to expect something like that?!" Jay found himself asking loudly. He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around the fantastical nature of events they had been watching. It truly was like something out of a sci-fi novel, or one of the mangas he enjoyed. When he accompanied Calliope to visit her 'grandfather' he had not been expecting it to lead to something like this. Perhaps visits from government suits, but certainly not this.

If anything would make the secret sectors of the government sit up and take notice, it would be this.

" _Why should I expect this to go_ _ **any**_ _differently?_ " It sounded like the developments of the day were beginning to wear on the already limited optimism Calliope possessed. She muttered something to herself that he didn't quite catch, but sounded like she was referring to her future self as a 'dumb-bitch' again.

"That would be Murphy's law at work," Nash said offhandedly, while still enthralled with the fight. "Anything that can go wrong, will go wro- Shit that dude's spine is definitely broken!"

The drones had a clear view of the 'angry spiky-haired' man's body as he was dealt a vicious slam to his back. By now it was clear that the tables had turned in terms of strength in the battle they observed. The advantage Vegeta had was gone now that Cell had achieved his final form. They watched without words as the fighter slammed into the ground, no longer moving, and the golden glow from his hair faded to black.

"So is his hair like... a mood ring?" Nash wondered aloud quietly, his head tilting with a curious look. The single drone continuously tried to readjust itself, with HoloCat's control trying to keep an eye on the action. For several moments the video feed swung upwards to show the blue sky before turning back to the ground. Vegeta's body lay face down and motionless, with Cell standing above, one of his hands extended with the palm facing the still body below.

"Oh, shit is he going to...?" Jay trailed off but left the question half-asked. For him, the excitement of getting to watch such a fight had worn off, but the implications of Cell gaining the upper hand was not lost on him. Beside him, Nash dug around in the sizable pockets of his hoodie to pull out a flask. After taking a swig, he passed it to Jay, who didn't ask any questions at first but did take a long drink himself. The liquid burned on the back of his throat and made him cough. "Jesus dude, what is this stuff?"

"Moonshine," Nash said simply and took another drink when the flask was passed back to him. He scarcely had a reaction to the strong spirits, except a small wince around his eyes that never left the screen. "Cell looks kinda distracted.."

" _HoloCat, try to see what Cell is looking at_." Calliope came over the call again, and they watched as the drone adjusted to fix its gaze on the sky above the fight. Trunks and Krillin were floating there, the former screaming and had a rising glow flare up around his form. Jay was surprised she didn't ask about the drinking.

With how the events had turned out today, he figured it wasn't that unexpected. Calliope was far too occupied watching the situation unfold, just as they were.

"I didn't realize epic battles for the fate of the planet would have so much... screaming.." Jay was sure that at any other time that would have sparked a lively debate, at least between himself and Nash. Why the screaming, the glowing? The posturing? The giant beams of energy? There was no time now as Trunks now took up the fight against Cell. The minutes of screaming and glowing had left the traveler from the future looking far bulkier with muscle than before.

When the fighting began again they were once again barely able to keep up. Their movements were too much to keep up with between their speed and the drone needing to adjust itself to keep them in sight. Behind them, the sky was once again darkening. Trunks was scarcely able to get an attack to land, from what they were able to see.

"Future boy isn't doing too good," Nash said plainly. The excitement was beginning to wear off for him as well. While his eyes were lit up watching the video feed, his voice was starting to return to the flat tones of his everyday life. He took another swig of moonshine and passed it to Jay.

"And Big Squishy seems to handle being punched into a mountain pretty well..." Jay sighed before taking another pull of moonshine and grimaced. His stomach was starting to feel sour from the worry and the drink.

" _Get one more drone out there, HoloCat_." They heard Calliope direct with an even tone. " _Keep it a half mile further out. I don't want to be losing any more drones... What the Hell are they doing now_?"

As she said this, Jay and Nash were leaning in closer to the screen. On the battlefield, the intense fighting had drawn to a stop. It appeared Cell and Trunks were having some kind of standoff on the ground, staring each other down, and looked to be having a conversation. On the call, Calliope was heard to be muttering angrily as they watched Trunk's hair fall to the purple that it had been previously. Angled as the camera was, they were able to see his face fall with an expression of defeat. Not long after that, they watched as Cell turned away, the smirk clear on his face even from the drone's distance.

" _No. No. What the fuck. No. Trunks you stupid, time-traveling ken doll what are you doing?_ " She said harshly more to herself than her tech support. After an irked huff she went on sarcastically, " _And you're just letting him go! Great. The guy's killed thousands, but yeah, this is good too. Great job_."

"Wait, if they're not going to keep fighting..." Jay said slowly as they watched Cell throw a two-fingered salute before lifting off the ground to leave. "..Then where is 'Big Squishy' going?"

The other drone sent out synced its video feed and was still trying to approach its new designation. From the drone that had been watching the battlefield, they watched as once again the screen went dark, but did not report a loss of signal. Jay shared another look with Nash as they prepared for another off-putting one-sided conversation.

" _Well, I see one survived. It's like the little drone that could._ " The video returned to the darkened feed, where the drone once again the video was focused on Cell. He spoke in much smoother tones then previously heard, playfully mocking. For several moments he held a thoughtful stare on the camera before smiling. " _Hmm.. You know, it has been great fun knowing you've been watching me attain perfection, fluttering around, watching what must have been an impressive display. And I bet you're sitting there, wondering what I'll be doing next._.."

"Boss he's-"

Nash could barely get a few words out before Calliope cut him off.

" _I know, shush._ " She said quickly.

" _But, that is a conversation best had in person_." Cell went on, carrying the one-sided conversation. His eyes narrowed by a degree then, and there was a vague hint of a threat when he next spoke. " _I hope you're still at Minnows because I would hate to have to track you down again. See you soon, Calliope._ "

The drones footage tumbled in a blur again, from being tossed away before it righted itself and followed its target as best as it could. Jay found his throat seized in shock. The exceptionally dangerous, powerful being they had seen tossing people about like rag dolls through mountains, was heading for a meeting with his boss. His underage, very much non-violent, non-athletic boss. From the other end of the call, he could hear her slamming through a door, and what must have been her footsteps thundering downstairs.

"Cal, please tell me you're getting out of there." He eventually managed to say. "Calliope?"

" _I'm not going anywhere_." She said flatly, to his dismay. This was not the time for her to be stubborn. " _HoloCat, do we have an ETA on when Cell will be back at this location_?"

" _At the speed Cell is currently traveling, approximately 8 minutes!_ " Her HoloCat chirped over the line.

"Boss, you know usually I would totally back you up on crazy schemes." Now Nash cut in, with a far more level tone then Jay could manage.

" _And I appreciate everything you guys have done, considering the circumstances. HoloCat keep that other drone on its original course. I want you to keep an eye on Android 16 with it._ " Calliope didn't give them a chance to try and dissuade her. They could hear the sound of clothing rustling as she continued. Her voice was much calmer than before. It was the cool tones of Doctor Merriweather she usually used when delegating work to her staff. " _I need one of you to go and try to get to 16. Whoever stays can keep an eye on the video feeds. HoloCat give Jay and Nash full access to those drones._ "

"And you're, what, going to have a meeting with Cell?" Jay asked, with a growing concern adding depth to his words.

" _That's exactly what I'm going to do. Best case scenario we sit down for a nice chat and he'll talk my ear off. Again_."

"...And worst case?" Nash dared to ask after a moment. He looked over to Jay, who had his face in his hands again.

"... _Worst case, he kills me, and then goes on another killing spree_." She said it so casually both members of her IT department had to take a moment of silence. After a moment with no protest they heard Calliope sigh, and she spoke softer then. " _Look. He wasn't interested in hurting me before. There's a good chance he'll just want to do an evil-villain monologue about his plans. I need you guys to get 16 somewhere safe, and, I don't know, see if we can fix the hole in his head. Get some of the more techy interns to help with it. You still have access to the data we got from the mountain lab right?_ "

"What? Yeah of course I do!" Looking up from his hands, Jay wasn't sure where to put his eyes. He pulled up his own HoloCat and found himself hesitating. "Calliope you can't be serious about this!"

" _I'm super serious, Jay. Just try to get 16. The drones will have eyes on me and Cell._ "

"Great, so we can watch in high-definition when he murders you!"

" _He's not going to murder me_."

"He's clearly crazy! You don't know what he's going to do!"

" _I will be fine. I'll call when I'm able to._ " Without another word, and before Jay could get another protest in, Calliope had dropped out of the call with a quiet beep. He looked between the drones; one following as fast as it could behind Cell, one flying out to 16's location, and the last one observing the area around the lab in Nicky Town.

"I'll stay here and watch the drones." Nash volunteered, leaning with his elbows on the desk. He took a lazy sip of moonshine before offering it to Jay, who simply stared at him. After a moment the ex-hacker shrugged, "What? I like watching hot people interact."

Jay held his gaze on his colleague for several more moments before closing his eyes and putting his face back in his hands. After a minute he gathered himself together and got up from the desk. "Okay... I guess I'll grab some interns and try to get 16... Call me if there are any developments with... Y'know..."

"Yeah, yeah, with Calliope and her hot monster buddy." Nash waved Jay off. He continued spinning a pen in one hand, his eyes regularly changing between the different video feeds.

"Dude, you've got to stop calling Cell hot," Jay said tiredly as he was on his way out of the cubicle.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

"I'll be fine. I'll call when I'm able to." If she was able to, but she didn't add that part. Calliope didn't give her tech support the chance to protest further. She was too tired to run from this. But she wasn't going to meet Cell dressed so casually. It just didn't seem right. She was a goddamn professional, and she was going to look like it.

The instant she knew he was coming back, she had made a dead sprint back down the stairs, back into her office, and hastily dressed in something more becoming to an average workday. She chose gray slacks and a short-sleeved red blouse under her clean white lab coat. The boots she would have needed on the farm were swapped for her usual black flats. Calliope brushed a few loose strands of hair back into place and trotted down the stairs from her office to the main lab. There were a few minutes to spare, according to HoloCat, who kept her updated on Cell's location.

"Hey, little guy.." She started awkwardly, back in the lab she had been spending the bulk of her time, where the HoloCat Collective was set up and Lil' Squishy floated in a jar. Standing before the container, Calliope reminded herself she didn't have the luxury of time to try and find something fitting to say. She spoke quickly, but softly, "I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm not sure if I'll be able to be there for you. So.. If this is it, then, well, its been.. Weird... If I can't make it back I'll make sure someone comes for you."

Calliope didn't wait for any form of response. Before stepping out of the lab she covered the tank with a spare lab coat someone left behind, careful not to cover the air intake responsible for oxygenating the liquid, and shut off the lights. According to HoloCat, she had just another couple of minutes before her guest would arrive. She did not rush herself back up to the roof and took the time to give a last list of directives.

"HoloCat, I want you to shut off any alerts we have for Cell." She began in a flat tone. "I don't want you yelling at me when he gets here."

"Doctor Merriweather! I don't think its advisable to stay!" The avatar looked up at her with a worried expression. "Cell is still listed as a hostile en-"

"I know. Shut them off anyway HoloCat." She was too tired to argue. "In the event of my death, I want you to notify Jay that 'Lil' Squishy' is still at the local lab. Tell him to explain everything to Doctor Belfast. _If_ I die. Not before." HoloCat stared at her with its sad face, and Calliope sighed as she paused on the top step on the level with her office. "HoloCat, do you acknowledge that order?"

"..." The avatar averted its gaze to look at the floor, and said softly, "..Yes, Doctor Merriweather."

Calliope lowered her arm where HoloCat was strapped on at her wrist and continued up the stairs. She tried not to think to about her nerds a the auxiliary lab, worried and watching her movements, perhaps trying to get to 16. Walking down the hall, and up the stairs to the roof access, she stepped out into the bright summer sun. Calliope exited to the flat rooftop, and could immediately tell that her visitor had already arrived. Before her eyes had settled on him, she could feel the charge of energy in the air that made the hair on her arms stand on end.

"Good afternoon, Calliope." Cell spoke in a smooth, polite voice that nonetheless sent a shiver down her spine. He must have landed just as she was leaving the cool air of the lab, several meters off to her right.

"Afternoon, Cell," Calliope answered after a moment, trying to sound as collected as she had upon their first meeting. Even if he did make an attempt on her life now, hopefully, it would be fast enough that she wouldn't see it coming. They were silent for what felt like minutes, for the second time that day not taking their eyes off each other. For Calliope, she didn't dare move her gaze from the most dangerous thing she'd ever been near, while Cell seemed to be beaming down at her with a wry smirk.

"So.." He began, and it sounded like the start of a question. "What do you think?"

"...You're a bit shorter than I remember." She answered, with an ounce of dry humor, but no smile. "... So, are you here to kill me?"

At that moment, Cell's smile faltered and he stared at her with confusion. The next second he had his hands on his hips and laughed. Calliope's face fell, and she had to mentally collect herself again. She was not trying to joke with a mass murderer. Nothing about this was particularly funny to her. Absurd, yes, but not funny.

"Kill you?" After his laughter finally trailed off, Cell crossed his arms and stared at Calliope with a tilted head, a small smile touching his lips. "My dear, what would make you think I'm here to kill you?"

"Well... As far as I can tell that's what you've spent the bulk of your time doing." Calliope managed to say, matter-of-factually, after a beat. It felt like an awkward conversation to be having. "And admittedly, I'm not entirely sure what to expect, of you, or in fact this kind of situation."

"Of course you haven't." Cell said this mostly to himself, and his smirk faltered for just an instant. When it returned he slowly uncrossed

his arms, and with graceful steps began closing the distance between them. Calliope stayed with her feet rooted in place. He stopped several feet away, and she had to make an effort to ignore the chill down her spine, and the alarms of danger in the back of her brain. When he spoke again it was cordially, "I feel like we might have gotten off on the wrong foot, before. So to put your mind at ease, no. I am not here to kill you, harm you, or anything like that."

Perhaps that was supposed to set her mind at ease. Calliope still wasn't able to relax. Though, for the time, she also hadn't been given any reason to expect this was anything other than a 'friendly get-together'. There was no reason to poke the proverbial bear. Or in this case, the genetically-engineered super soldier from the future that her future self helped develop.

"No, Calliope," Cell continued to speak, and she patiently listened to his explanation. As he went on there was a sharp edge of excitement, "I'm here because I wanted to show you the end result of all your work, your father's work, the final, perfect form that I have attained. Those battles that you were watching earlier were nothing but a taste of my power."

"Future me." Calliope corrected before she could stop herself. "I haven't done anything to contribute to.." She trailed off and gestured to Cell's form as if to finish making her point.

Cell didn't respond for a moment, and while his expression didn't change at first, his eyes did narrow a small degree. "Technically correct. But, if the timelines were left unchanged, you would have."

"I suppose that's... Possible." Calliope winced to herself. For perhaps the first time realized that this was true. Had Trunks not come back, and started messing around with the series of events that were meant to be, she very likely would have ended up continuing the project she had been left. On Lil' Squishy, to eventually become Cell.

It was a strange feeling, knowing that her fate had been altered permanently. That there was a whole other life she had been meant to live.

Now was not the time to think on the philosophy of it all, she reminded herself.

"So. It sounded like you already had something planned, now that you have integrated the androids." Calliope refocused herself at the matter of hand. There would be time later, possibly, to think about the impact of everything that had happened. Right now she had this tall mass-murderer, who was acting oddly polite to her, to deal with.

"Ah, yes." At this Cell chuckled, and finally moved his gaze to survey the surrounding area. He looked thoughtful now, and this came through in his voice. "Hmm. No, this location won't do." Turning back to Calliope, he was once again smiling, and this time extended a hand to her for her to take. "I think a visual demonstration would go better with the explanation. How do you feel about a little field trip?"

Calliope hesitated, and for a moment looked between Cell and his offered hand. It was well within the realm of possibilities that he may just take her anyway, she knew. Against her better judgment- that begged her not to run off with a killer- she reached out and tentatively placed her hand in his. His skin was smooth and almost feverishly warm to the touch. Before Calliope had time to react, or realize fully what had happened she had been pulled forward, scooped up, and found herself squeaking with surprise. Where an instant before she was firmly rooted on the roof of her laboratory, she was now being carried bridal style and at least a hundred feet up.

"Oh-Yep-Um- Okay!" This was all Calliope could say at first, still in shock. Her arms had acted without thought and wrapped around the only real support available, which was Cell's neck. She wondered briefly about why she put herself in these kinds of situations. Once again, she thought, this could have been avoided if she had simply evacuated with the rest of her staff. While she did not usually have a notable fear of heights, given the situation she forced her to gaze up to look back at Cell, who was much closer than she was comfortable with. "... And you're sure you're not going to drop me, right?"

"I am not going to drop you." Cell answered with more confidence then she could muster.

"Okay. It's just that I've never been.. Ah.." Calliope searched for the words to describe this.

"Literally swept off your feet?" He was somehow smirking even more now, close to that grin she had seen on the drone's feed before.

"I was going to say flown without the use of a ship." She answered immediately.

"Well, I'm sure this will be quite the treat then."

"Yeah. I'm just... I'm just going to keep holding on to you." She emphasized this by wrapping her arms a bit tighter as they accelerated enough to make her wince at the air whipping over her face. Her hair was going to be a mess after this, Calliope just knew it. Forcing the thought from her mind, she had to raise her voice a bit to talk. "So, where exactly are we going?"

"I'll know when I see it." By now Cell had averted his gaze and was searching over the land below.

"Um... Doctor Merriweather?" Calliope heard the high, worried voice, and had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She pulled the arm HoloCat was attached to before her. The avatar still had not recovered its usually chipper attitude or tone, and as soon as it noticed Cell looking at it, gave a fearful squeak before collapsing. The avatar looked like it was ducking down, with just the glowing ears peaking up.

"HoloCat. Get back up here." She had to fight not to sound annoyed. At the very least the AI wasn't screaming at her again. The avatar peeked up enough to show its eyes, which blinked up to stare at Cell. Calliope had to use a bit more serious tone to get the hologram to look back at her. "HoloCat. What is it?"

"..." It didn't respond at first but did alternate its gaze between Cell's curious gaze, and Calliope's annoyed one. "Well..."

"If you're about to alert me to Cell's arrival at the lab, its a BIT late for that." Her voice had a sarcastic lilt she usually reserved for disciplining her staff.

"Aw, and I was wondering when the little guy would pipe up and start shouting about me." Cell said this with a chuckle. He watched HoloCat watching him as he spoke again. "Let me guess. You have some sort of proximity alert? Or perhaps an email from concerned co-workers? Hmm?"

"... We... We don't have protocols for navigating... hostage situations..." HoloCat slowly got the words out before Cell began laughing again.

"HoloCat, this isn't a hostage situation," Calliope said plainly, with a frown, over Cell's laughter. "You were listening to the conversation earlier, right? I wasn't kidnapped. I'm here on my own free will. Cell and I are... Doing something, that I am sure he's going to fully explain at some point."

"Well," Cell began, using the same playful tone he had used with HoloCat, "Sooner rather than later."

Calliope felt jostled when they abruptly stopped and were now hanging in the air. She took the opportunity to look around at where they were. It looked to be out in the middle of nowhere, miles away from any city or town. There were some hills, grass, what looked to be a farm perhaps, and a road that cut through the area. What the hell were they doing out there? Cell was gently floating them down atop a small plateau, and he surveyed the land around them thoughtfully.

"I'll need just a moment." He said, and before Calliope had a chance to wonder what he meant, she found herself being thrown up fast enough to rival a rickety carnival ride.

'So this is how I die' was her first thought. Over her own screams, and HoloCat's screams, she could barely hear the sound of a far-off explosion. In the free-fall she felt the air whipping past her, her hair came undone, and her stomach did flips. She spared a glance towards the ground and saw the building that was there was gone, and there was a large flat space carved out of the earth. Calliope could not stand looking at the Earth rushing up to meet her. As quickly as it began, she suddenly felt the falling stop, but not by crashing into the ground.

"What the shit!?" Calliope could not keep her calm, cool composure after something like that when she suddenly realized that Cell had indeed caught her before she could collide with the ground. HoloCat was still wailing like a terrified child, and she was kicking and had a hand pressing against Cell's face upon seeing his somewhat confused stare. "No! Down! Put me down! On the ground!"

Through her half-scared and half-infuriated shouting, he did begrudgingly set her with her feet on the ground. Her hair was frazzled and windswept around her shoulders and down her back. With shaking legs she leaned with her hands on her knees and bowed her head. After a few breaths to try and calm herself, Calliope was able to gather her thoughts enough to slap a hand over the crying avatar. Its wails were only partially muffled.

"Holocat. Shush." She said harshly when she could pull herself to stand straight again. The avatar quieted itself but stared up at her with a tearful expression. Turning to look back at Cell, she found him watching her curiously, with his arms crossed and the hint of an amused smile. Several moments of silence passed, and Calliope threw her arms wide, and tried her best not to yell, "What the hell was that?"

"... Well. I thought that might work out a bit better than possibly harming you while I cleared up the land." He said with a small shrug as if he hadn't just thrown her up in the air with little warning.

"Okay. Well. In the future, and I can't believe I have to actually say this, I would appreciate if you either gave me a clear warning if you are going to throw me 300 feet up in the air, or didn't do it at all." Calliope closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. After a moment

to think about what Cell had actually said, she perked back up and looked up at him with an arched brow. "... Cleared the land for what?"

When she said this, Cell's smile grew into that same wolfish grin he had flashed her earlier in the day. There was something about it that unsettled Calliope. Even more so then she was already unsettled, everything considered. He turned away from her then and spoke while extending a hand to one of the larger rock formations perhaps half a mile away. "For my arena."

"For your what now?" Calliope didn't have much time to feel lost as she watched the plateau in the distance rumble before lifting from the ground as if on command. She was shocked enough that she didn't have it in her to try and press any further questions.

"I'm not sure how much you caught of my earlier conversation with Trunks- that would be the spirited, purple-haired young man that was trying to fight me near the end," Cell began to explain, never taking his eyes off the rock formation as he looked to manipulate it, and wholly slice it up. "But I was given the most marvelous idea. You see, after becoming perfect, there really isn't any further goals for me to accomplish. No further purpose to fulfill. Well, aside from killing Goku, of course. You know how your father was. Then it came to me, what better way to test my new powers than a proper fighting tournament?"

By the end of it, they were standing before a smooth, marble tiled surface laid on the surface that was freshly flattened. Calliope had stood watching in equal parts fear and amazement, and it snuffed out any of the righteous indignation she had felt before. She was finally starting to realize the true depth of what her father had set out to create.

"A fighting tournament?" Calliope finally asked, and her voice sounded flat. Cell had turned back to her, smirking. "You're going to hold a tournament?"

"Yes, I am." He nodded and turned back to admire his work. "And this turned out beautiful, don't you think?"

"Its... Certainly something." She still couldn't bring herself to say anything more until a thought came to her. Standing as they were, side by side, looking out over the freshly constructed arena, Calliope had to take a breath before asking. "What about after the tournament? What do you plan to do then?"

"Hmm. I think I'll leave that as a surprise.." He grinned a little when he said this.

"... I don't like surprises."

"I know." Cell's eyes slid over to her. "But the day is wearing on, and I still have more work to do. Perhaps you'd like to return to your lab in Nicky Town?"

Calliope finally brought herself to look back up at him, too tired to be distressed in that moment. He was planning something involving an untold number of deaths if she had to guess. Taking a moment, she pulled her hair back, fixing it back in a tight bun. She glanced at HoloCat, which still looked sadly up at her, and in a snap decision spoke, "Actually, I think I'd like to go to the auxiliary lab, where my staff is."

She didn't think she could stand to go to the cold, silent lab now. Even if Jay had been covering for her, it was time she reunited with her people. Without further conversation, just as before, Calliope gave a small squeak of surprise as Cell picked her up with little effort, and they were once again airborne.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat chirped up after several minutes, most of which were spend with Calliope's directions to the auxiliary lab, and Cell promising not to harm any of her staff after she had expressed her concerns. Some of its usual happy tones had returned, but it still wore a worried expression.

"What is it HoloCat?" She sighed, hoping it wasn't some absurd worry about how she was 'kidnapped'. Even though there may be more for her to deal with today, Calliope was feeling worn as it was.

"I know you wanted me to shut off all notifications, but you have a call on hold with Help Desk!" She had to raise an eyebrow at that. With Help Desk? "I had tried to tell him that you were not taking calls at the moment... And I think he may have circumvented my programming?"

"Let him know I'm busy, and that I'll be at the aux lab shortly," Calliope said loudly enough to be heard over the rushing air. Assuming the call had ended, she turned her attention back to Cell when she noticed he was watching her. "One of my tech support people is still probably keeping an eye on the drone feeds. And probably has the same concerns HoloCat has." She shrugged after a moment. "They tend to worry."

"Ah, about our little trip, I'm assuming?" Cell chuckled at this. "Well, I hope it was an entertaining show for them. Did they catch the rest of the fighting?"

"Yeah, they saw pretty much all of-"

" _Hey, Boss? You there?_ " Nash's voice came over to cut her off, and Calliope couldn't help but groan. Of course, he had found a way to get around HoloCat's stated orders. Having a hacker on staff was a double-edged sword in ways she didn't think of.

"Oh? And who's this?" With a sudden hard edge to his voice, Cell had shifted his gaze back to HoloCat's avatar with narrowed eyes.

" _... Um... This is Nash..._ " The tech's voice said carefully. " _... Is Doctor Merriweather there?_ "

"I'm here Nash, what is it?" She spoke up, and couldn't help but sound annoyed.

" _Oh. Y'know. I noticed you guys, ah, left the lab... Just wanted to check in._ "

"I'm fine. Not kidnapped. Stop hacking HoloCat. I'll be at the auxiliary lab shortly."

" _Okay. Cool... Are you... Bringing company?_ "

"Nash, you wouldn't happen to be talking about me, wouldn't you?" At this point, Cell cut into the conversation, with that same playfully mocking tone he had used with HoloCat earlier. He didn't wait for a response. "Unfortunately, no, I won't be able to stay for a visit. I will be dropping Calliope off, and then be tending to other business."

" _Oh. Okay then..._ " Nash seemed to be doing a better job of keeping his cool than she would have expected. " _That's nice of you._ "

"Nash, I'm going to hang up now. Stop hacking things that don't need to be hacked." Calliope disconnected the call before Nash could say anything else.

It did not take long to reach Central City where Minnows BioSolutions had established an auxiliary lab near the city limits. While she had only been there a few times to ensure it was up to snuff in case of an emergency, it was a welcome sight now. Perhaps it could restore some of her illusion of safety. At the very least it would have her staff there. She was even looking forward to dealing with Doctor Belfast.

"Well, Calliope, this is where we part ways, for now." Cell said as they touched down on the flat rooftop of the auxiliary lab. He gently lowered her down to the ground, and once she had taken a few steps back he smiled down at her.

"Yeah, Cell, it's been... Its been interesting." Calliope said carefully and winced a bit at how awkward it sounded.

"Perhaps next time we'll have time for a nice, long chat." He said this as he started lifting back off the ground, and before leaving called down to her. "Now you make sure to keep an eye on the news for that surprise!"

Before Calliope could inquire or react, he was gone again, in a flare of light and a blur. She managed to follow Cell's trail and realized he was heading deeper into the city. Though she breathed a sigh of relief to be out of immediate danger, she noticed her legs were trembling again. Internally she cursed to herself and turned towards the roof access with slow steps.

"HoloCat, start monitoring all news stations in Central City. Let me know if Cell shows up on there. Not old news on disappearances. I only want to see new developments." 


	9. The Joys of a 24-Hour News Cycle

Chapter 8: The Joys of a 24-Hour News Cycle

~Minnows BioSolutions Auxiliary Lab~

Before Calliope could make it to the roof access to begin heading down, the door flew open, making her jump. In the doorway, Nash looked around and above as if trying to catch sight of something. She sighed and it felt like a great weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"Hey, Boss," Nash said casually as he stepped all the way out onto the rooftop. With his eyes turned back to the sky, he gestured at her and then upwards. "So... I guess you got dropped off?"

"... Yeah." Nodding, Calliope swiped some hair back into place. She needed to give her hair a good brushing soon, it must have been a mess at the moment. After a beat of awkward silence, she asked, "How's everything in there?"

"Oh, you know, kinda weird. Belfast is still trying to get people to get _some_ work done." Nash shrugged, but he kept staring at her like there was more to be said. Without prompting he started again. "Jay left with a couple interns and met up with 16. I was able to get the big guy to stay there long enough by doing this, like, interpretive dance with the drone. They all left with purple-haired future dude-"

"Trunks." Calliope cut in quickly to correct Nash.

"Right yeah, and short, bald dude."

"Krillin."

"Yeah, that guy. They all bailed, last I heard they were going to hang at Capsule Corp headquarters to help get 16 fixed. As far as Belfast knows they're all out on a long lunch break. Poor guy doesn't seem to really have the energy to care. He's mostly focused on whoever is still here." Nash opened the door back up and held it with his back to make way for Calliope to start going down the stairs. "You ready to jump back into this mess?"

"I think so." Calliope didn't wait for him while heading in and kept a slow, steady pace as she took the steps down. Once inside she was sure to lower her voice, she didn't want their conversation to be overheard now that she was back with her people "Honestly, I'm happy to just be back. Being alone in that lab was getting unbearable... And weird.." She paused half-way down the flight and looked back up to Nash who was following. "Like, the only one I had to talk to was Lil' Squishy kinda weird."

"Lil' Squishy like the... The baby version of Cell from your dad's lab?" Nash arched a brow as he said this. Jay must have mentioned the nickname at some point while explaining their time in her father's lab.

"...Yep. The little guy survived being disconnected from life support. So he's just... Hanging out at the lab in Nicky Town."

"Huh. Are you going to... Do anything with him?"

"No. Not really." She shook her head then. "Just trying to keep him alive... So I'll need to get back to Nicky Town at some point.."

"I get that." He nodded sympathetically and scratched his head. "So. What happened out there? With Cell?"

"... Well. I was right, he just wanted to talk." Calliope began slowly and took a few more steps down the stairs before she stopped. She didn't want to have to explain this where they might be overheard. Leaning against the wall, she looked to Nash again. "And, I guess to show off his abilities? And apparently, he's going to hold some kind of tournament. It was really weird and kinda surreal..."

"And smokin' hot," Nash added in with a nod and thoughtful expression, which earned him an exasperated look from her. He shrugged. "What? Dude's new body is nice."

" _Please_ don't make it weird."

"It's not weird to acknowledge when someone or something is attractive. Not to mention he was clearly putting on a show for you..." He trailed off after saying this. When Calliope maintained a questioning glare, the hacker seemed to understand that it was time to change the subject. "So he's going to hold a tournament? Is he going to advertise about it on Twitter or something?" When Nash said this, Calliope's face fell to something like exhausted annoyance.

"Well... He did say something about watching the news for a 'surprise'. He wasn't exactly clear about what's going to happen after the tournament, or what the prizes were or anything." She brought up her HoloCat again and directed it to silent mode for when she did finally reunite with her staff. For a minute she scanned through the news selections already found. Nothing newer in the 24-hour news cycle rehashing the past shots and stories from Cell's rampage of hunting people along the evacuation routes. With any luck, they wouldn't have to worry about him eating any more people. "I just have a bad feeling that it's going to end with more people dying.."

Turning away from Nash then, she continued down the stairs with a feeling of resignation. They continued a quick, quiet conversation while they made their way down the stairs, to the first floor where the main lab was located. She mentally geared herself up to be back with her staff.

"Oh! Fun side note." Nash smiled then and touched Calliope's arm before she could open the door to the first floor. "I found the rest of the drones."

"The rest? How many?" She tilted her head, clearly intrigued.

"Yeah, there were a few dozen more sorta just floating around. I was trying to double-check for any kind of speaker functionality, cause I was trying to yell at 16 to keep him in place, and discovered that the drones are actually kinda networked together. The other ones are already synced up, they're just waiting for orders." Nash explained in an excited ramble, a cheerful grin growing as he spoke.

"Holy crap, seriously? That's great." Calliope found herself smiling a little. It was the first good news in what felt like a long time. This was nothing close to a fix to their problems, but it was something, she reminded herself.

"I planned to try modifying a handful of them to have speakers on them. Is that cool?"

"Absolutely. I wouldn't mind being able to yell at people from great distances." She immediately nodded, and once again turned to head out the door into first floor proper. Calliope stopped herself before she could open the door all the way, and looked down at herself. She knew her hair was out of place, and her clothes were still dusty in some places. Taking a minute to try and straighten her blouse, and pat off the remaining dust, she reminded herself that she'd need to take a shower at some point soon. "There. Do I look okay?"

"Yeah. You look fine. Tired, but that's not unusual for you."

"Well, it'll have to do for now." Calliope pushed the sleeves of her lab coat back up her arms and tried to flap the rest of the dust off the tail of it. Once again she turned back to the door and pushed it open into the first floor. "Arrangements were made for accommodations, right?"

They were in a long back hall that lead to the break room on the right and opened into the main lab further down. She could already hear the sounds of her staff bustling about. The air was much more relaxed than the last time she had been with them. Before they were tense with news of attacks in the area, and then evacuating due to a risk of nuclear fallout. She knew they probably weren't getting much work done. That alone likely agitated Doctor Belfast to no end. Even in the worst of times, he would keep his nose to the grindstone.

Calliope never liked the auxiliary lab. While it was suited to being a backup location in times of emergency, a sturdy rally point near the capitol for her people to go to, it lacked the light of the lab in Nicky Town. There were hardly any windows, and no large slanted ceiling made of glass to let the sunshine in. The bright, artificial lights did the environment no justice. It felt more like a tomb than a place of scientific discovery.

"Yeah, we got hotel vouchers. You'll probably need to talk to Belfast about that." Nash slowed his pace as they crossed the wide threshold to the break room. There were several people sat at the four tables, all watching a rehashed broadcast on the TV hung on the wall. He looked away from Calliope and made the slightest groaning noise in warning. "Speak of the Devil..."

"Merriweather!" Doctor Belfast had just rounded the corner and spotted them, and was making a fast approach with frustration written on his face.

"Belfast." Calliope greeted shortly with a nod. She didn't want to get caught up in an argument with Belfast. At the moment she wished to sequester herself in the make-shift office upstairs.

"It's about damn time you showed up!" Belfast bellowed and stopped before Nash and Calliope. He glanced at the break room where her staff was looking at them for a moment before they all turned back to the news. Settling his eyes back on her, she could see the dark circles under his own eyes, and he had lowered his voice to something close to conversational. "How's your grandfather?"

Calliope blinked and didn't respond for a moment. That's right, Jay had been covering for her with a story about her ailing grandpa. She kept her expression neutral and held a steady gaze with Doctor Belfast. "... He died."

"Oh." Belfast's eyes immediately softened, for a moment. He reached out to clap her on the shoulder. This was a man who was not used to having to use a gentle hand with people, but it was obvious he was trying. "I'm sorry to hear... Did you need to take some time off? I know making arrangements can be a bitch and a half."

"I might if you're willing to keep holding down the fort. I wanted to come out and check to see how everyone was holding up." Calliope said with a sigh and noticed that HoloCat's avatar had blinked up to stare at her, a small dot of light flashing above its head. She needed to get somewhere she could review the news in peace. Looking back to Belfast she was going to try and explain something but found that he was no longer focused on her. Instead, he was staring curiously into the break room. She felt Nash nudge her with his elbow, and looked at him only to see him

pointing to the TV in the break room. Following their gazes, Calliope's eyes settled on the news, and immediately her eyes went wide with horror.

 _"I have a message for all the people of Earth. Your boring lives are about to get much more interesting, thanks to me_." There, on the TV, and looking as if he had broken into the news studio in a most spectacularly terrifying manner, was Cell. Calliope turned to share a look with Nash briefly before continuing to watch the broadcast with a rising sense of indignation.

The researchers and other assembled staff stared in rapt, horrified attention at the broadcast. Some gasped, some muttered in fear.

Calliope took a moment to lean over to Nash and whisper harshly, "Go get started on the drone modifications." He nodded and silently slipped away down the hall, and through a door that lead back to where the servers were kept. She knew that was the most likely place IT would set up in this situation. Rooted in place, she kept watching the broadcast, Belfast stepped up to her side.

" _Bring me your best fighters and I will face them one by one in a contest of strength. This is the last chance for planet Earth, if I am not defeated, it belongs to me!_ " Cell was clearly taking delight in the fear the news crew was in. Not to mention anyone viewing the broadcast.

"Oh, what fresh Hell is this." Belfast wondered aloud, with a concerned look he shared with Calliope. They both stood with their arms crossed, glaring at the broadcast as a few more people filtered into the break room to watch. From the main lab, they could hear people clamoring to find a news feed to watch, and a couple of HoloCats could be heard giving small shrieks of terror in place of its usually cheerful notification tone.

" _Now watch this, here's just a little taste of what you'll be up against._ " At this they all watched with rapt attention as he turned, one arm extended with a palm to the wall, and blasted a hole through the back of the studio. The researchers and other assembled staff watched with shocked gasps as they watched the energy blast carve through the city and blast a mountain in the distance into oblivion. There was a faint vibration that ran through the lab, and the cups in cupboards faintly clattered together. " _Come and get me if you dare!_ "

Calliope held a fiery glare at the and felt her lips twitching into a snarl as she watched Cell, who was grinning at the camera and his audience before he turned and flew out of the hole in the studio. Once he was out of sight of the camera, the lab quickly filled with noise as the collected staff began to panic. Standing in place, she observed her people, once again panicking. At her side Belfast was as steady as stone, and they shared a look. She found herself seething with rage, at her staff's nervous nature, her father, and most of, Cell.

How dare he put on such a pompous display meant to terrify.

"That cockbiting son of a bitch!" Calliope exclaimed before she could stop herself. She didn't register her staff's curious and scared gazes for several seconds. Those immediately around her, in the break room, gave a moment of pause. They were looking to her with questions in their eyes. She rose her arm to quietly direct. "HoloCat, hook me up to the PA system for an immediate broadcast." Her heart was thumping in her ears when she spoke again, her voice radiating controlled anger that boomed throughout the lab, "This is Doctor Merriweather. Staff meeting in the conference room, 1 hour! Until then I want everyone to try and _remain_ calm."

Nodding down the hall at Belfast, Calliope began walking again at a brisk pace. "I'll meet you in the conference room in a few minutes. We've got to figure out what to tell these people. Is my office is still reserved upstairs?"

"Room 201. IT should have set up your computer already." Her fellow doctor matched her pace and tight tone. Right now she was thankful that Belfast was able to keep his composure so well. "I'd say we need to get the department heads together first, but Karlia from legal is AWOL, and Jay is _still_ on a long lunch with a gaggle of the interns. So its just you, me, and accounting."

"Jay called me before I arrived." She started evenly and decided it was only fair to return the favor since Jay was out trying to help 16. "Bad reaction to some seafood. He and the interns got food poisoning." She made a mental note to send him an email to make sure he was aware of their collective fake-illness.

"That's a damn shame. Terrible timing. I'll see if I can contact government agencies to see what the official word is." Belfast shook his head and as they rounded the corner they were in the main lab, where most of the research staff was dressed casually. Watching them briefly, on the way to the stairs up to the second level, many of them seemed to be in various stages of panic. One researcher was at a workstation crying. Several were rushing to contact their families, some running out towards the front exit. He spoke quieter then, in a gruff tone. "But I want your opinion, how serious do you think this guy is?"

"Very," Calliope said with no hesitation or further explanation while watching her people. She was still trying to wrestle her own feelings, which were somewhere between terrified and infuriated. Without looking at Belfast she continued to the stairs and up to her office. "I'll meet you in the conference room."

Jogging the rest of the way up the stairs to the second floor, Calliope sighed with relief as the noise from the main lab was muffled. There were fewer people on this level where the offices were located. Her mind was racing, replaying that announcement of Cell's over and over again, trying to decipher any further meaning. She looked between the placards next to the doors until she got to the office 201, her designated office in the auxiliary lab. None of the doors were labeled with names as they were in Nicky Town, and her space didn't have the normal amenities that she had in their home lab. Once she had locked herself in, she turned to lean with her back against the door.

She supposed she should feel thankful that Cell wasn't immediately going on another killing spree. That wasn't, of course, counting those who must have died in that explosive display on the news. And while he had never been explicit about it during their earlier discussion, or during his announcement, Calliope was almost certain what would happen if he were to win. Further destruction. More death. These were things she was hoping to get some manner of clarity on. But that could wait. Right now, with her staff scared and fretting about, she needed to figure out something to tell them.

Running wouldn't do any good. There was likely no place for them to effectively hide. The auxiliary lab was a good a place as any to be. The last thing she wanted was her people losing their minds and acting rashly. On the same token, she couldn't very well ask them to stay and keep working as if everything was okay. Everything was not okay, and now the whole world knew it.

"Doctor Merriweather?" HoloCat interrupted her thoughts with a gentle voice. She looked down at the avatar. "I know you wanted your alerts set to silent... But.."

"Its okay, you can unmute in here." She nodded for the AI to continue.

"Okay!" It perked up at this and recovered its usual chipper tone. "You have an incoming video call from Jay!"

"Go ahead and put it through," Calliope said as she hurried to her desk, trying to wake up the computer so that the video call could open. Seated in the office chair, she fixed the camera to ensure she was seen. When it did she saw the worried face of Jay, tired and sweat on his brow. She didn't wait for him to greet her before stating strongly. "Jay. You have food poisoning."

"... _Wait, what_?" Caught off guard, Jay frowned and took a moment to answer. "... _No, I don't_.."

"If Belfast asks, yes you do. You and the interns got into some bad seafood on your 'lunch break'." She even raised her hands to make the air quotes as she said this.

" _Ahh, okay. Yeah. Got it. Good cover_." He nodded then but was quick to jump to another topic. " _Cal are you okay? What happened with Cell? Did you see him on the news?"_

"I did. We're having a staff meeting about it in a while here." Calliope paused and looked down at her hands. She had been trying not to think of her earlier encounter with Cell. It had incited as much anxiety as it did ire in her. She turned back to the camera and continued. "He just wanted to talk, and show off, I guess? I'm going, to be honest, it was really weird. I mean Cell is a tall, scary, dangerous psychopath and I watched him carve up a plateau into an arena. With his mind. So today has gone exactly the opposite of how I had wanted it to."

" _Is that Doctor Merriweather_?" Another voice called from the background, the robotic tones she recognized as 16. Jay moved out of the way of the camera, and she was able to see more of the lab they were currently in. Specifically, she saw her android friend laying on a table, with his bulky armor removed. The sizable hole on the side of his head looked only partially-repaired at this point. One of her interns was moving about in the background and looked to be trying to find something.

"I'm here, 16, are you okay? We saw you get injured while we were watching the fighting on the drones." Calliope sat up a bit straighter and offered a bittersweet smile.

" _Hi, Doc!_ " One of the other interns said quickly as their head popped into the frame, temporarily blocking the rest of the view. One of the fresh-faced youths with a mohawk of cherry red hair smiled brightly and waved before ducking back out of the camera's view. If there was one thing she always appreciated about the interns, it was that they were full of boundless enthusiasm. The technical skills were a bonus too. It looked like Jay had taken many of the same people who had worked on the HoloCat project.

" _I am fine. I am currently undergoing repairs_." 16 shifted his gaze down from the camera, and his mechanical voice held a hint of shame. " _I was not able to stop Cell from absorbing the other androids. I am sorry, Doctor Merriweather._ "

"16.. It's okay. It's not your fault." She said in a softer tone, and she couldn't help but sigh. How did she get to a point where she was being kinda-kidnapped by genetically-engineered super soldiers from the future, and trying to comfort an android who was literally built to kill people? It seemed so strange, but Calliope tried to push it out of her mind for now.

It was at that point that a new face she didn't recognize appeared in the camera. He was an older man with spectacles, a cigarette in his lips, and a bushy mustache. Calliope leaned back and stared back with uncertainty, though she did feel he looked familiar. She just couldn't place his face. When he spoke it was in a cheerful, friendly way. " _Well, hello there! You must be Gero's daughter that people keep talking about._ "

"Um... Yes?" Calliope had to force herself to recover a polite smile. She felt flush with embarrassment and rubbed at the back of her neck as she explained. "I actually go by Merriweather... To avoid being associated with the whole... You know, Red Ribbon Army... stuff..."

" _Ah, Doctor Merriweather! I knew I recognized that name from somewhere. You're the girl that engineered the giant goats, right_?"

"Mega goats, yeah." Calliope nodded dumbly. Talking about her association with The Doctor Gero was not a comfortable conversation for her, especially with a complete stranger. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

" _Oh of course dear, I'm Doctor Brief._ " That's where she knew that face from, he was the founder of Capsule Corporation. " _Your tech people have been a great help with getting 16 fixed back up. Especially with the blueprints for his design! I don't think I'd be able to fully figure out your father's work without it_."

" _Dad? Who are you talking to?_ " Another voice came on the line now and sounded distinctly feminine. Along with Doctor Brief appeared a new face, this time belonging to a young woman with stunning blue hair, who looked about as confused as Calliope did.

" _Bulma! This is Doctor Merriweather, Doctor Gero's daughter! She the girl that created those giant goats I told you about_!" Doctor Brief explained as he looked away from the camera before addressing Calliope again. " _This is my daughter, Bulma. She's been helping get 16 fixed back up._ "

"Oh! You're Trunk's mom, right?" While it seemed like a lifetime ago now, she did recall the conversations from her father's sub-lab when herself and Jay had met their rescuers. Calliope tilted her head in curiosity, "Wait, so... Are you from the future, too, or...?"

" _Nah, I'm from the present, where Trunks is just a little baby_." With introductions out of the way, Bulma smiled warmly and even laughed a bit. " _God, I hope I still look this good when he's older_."

"Okay, I wasn't sure if there were more people back from the, ah, future," Calliope said with a few nods of understanding. She still felt uncomfortable and found herself explaining with a small wince. "You know, I really am sorry about, just, everything my father's done. Cell, the androids-" speaking a little louder she made sure to emphasize, "Uh, not you 16! You're a sweetheart!"

" _Thank you, Doctor Merriweather_." 16 piped up in the background before Calliope continued.

"I mean up until last week I was convinced he was retired from this kind of stuff. Had I known he was planning on..." She couldn't quite find the words and made a broad gesture to everything as if to encompass everything that had happened. Originally, she figured, the intent was to kill Goku, as it always was. But knowing that it would end in the world being decimated, it was impossible to defend Gero's activities. "I definitely would have visited him sooner and, I don't know, put him in a nursing home doped up on sedatives. Or something..."

" _Girl, don't even worry about it. We've known the androids were coming for a few years now_." Bulma said this with a surprisingly casual wave of her hand. " _And honestly, I'm pretty sure Goku and Vegeta at least were pretty excited about fighting the androids._ "

"... That's a weird thing to get excited about." Calliope blinked and felt her face fall to a confused, blank expression. Who the hell gets excited about the potential end of the world?

" _Yeah, I know_." This was said with a sigh, and Bulma smiled and shrugged. " _What can I say, Saiyans, am I right?_ "

The small ding of an email alert coming in drew Calliope's attention for a second. Belfast would be wondering what was taking her so long to get to the conference room. She looked back to the camera and spoke with a recovering professional tone. "Well, I have to get back to planning a meeting. I have a building full of researchers and assorted staff all freaking out about Cell and have to find _some_ way to try and calm them down. But I really appreciate you guys helping fix 16, and it was nice to meet you too. Feel free to keep my people there as long as needed."

" _Alright. The repairs should go a lot quicker with more people working on 16._ " She nodded with a confident smile, and before Calliope could disconnect the call added. " _Oh, and I wouldn't be too worried about Cell. Goku will probably be able to take care of him._ "

"Well, I hope he can keep up his track record of destroying my father's work.." Calliope tried to keep the dismal feeling she had inside from slipping into her tone. She had been let down too many times today to really give any confidence to anyone. The best she could do was try and maintain, attempt to calm her staff, and most of all try and keep her own composure. With a final set of goodbyes to her staff, 16, and the Briefs, she was able to end the call.

It was with a great deal of reluctance that she set HoloCat back to mute, and pulled herself to her feet. She swapped her dusty lab coat for a fresh, crisp white one to wear like armor over her own concerns. For one last moment, she gathered herself together and breathed a few calming lungfuls of cool air in the quiet of her hopefully temporary office.

By the time the staff meeting had ended the sun was already set, and it was well past the time everyone should have been home. The noise from the conference room slowly died down as the several dozen staff filtered out of the room, and out of the office. Many of them were bound to be meeting with their families to go over their options. Many more were likely to be heading to local bars to find some comfort in a drink.

"Well..." Calliope sighed as she walked with Doctor Belfast through the main lab after everyone else had left. Hands in her pockets, her voice held an edge of sarcasm. "That went well."

"It was a shit show," Belfast said evenly, but then chuckled and shook his head. "But it went better then I thought it would. Only a few people ended up crying."

"Yeah, but how many people do you think will work until the weekend?"

"I'm expecting all of them too. They're goddamn adults, and I'll put the fear of God in them if they think they can just stop showing up to work. The potential end of the world or not." Stopping then, he passed several slips of paper to Calliope, who looked them over curiosity. "Those are vouchers for the hotel we're at. Are you going to be staying here later?"

"Yeah. I'm going to spend a bit of time looking over some emails. I fell behind on them when I was..." Calliope allowed her words to trail off, and let Belfast come to the conclusion that she had been busy with her 'ailing grandfather'. He simply nodded with understanding and didn't pursue the subject further.

"You should take administrative leave. Starting tonight." He said, and then placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke in a fatherly way. "Get out of the office, make the arrangements you need to, and for god's sake take some time for yourself. I'll try to keep everyone working until the weekend. Then they can take their damn vacation until we see what happens with this tournament."

"Yeah. I'll think about it." Calliope nodded and genuinely considered taking the time off. She trusted Belfast with her staff, he had been doing fine since she had tried to check on her father, after all. That is if they showed up in the first place. "Goodnight Aiden."

"Good night Calliope." Belfast returned the nod, and headed towards the front of the building, towards the exit.

Though the lab was blissfully quiet now, Calliope found herself wishing some of her staff was still there. She longed for the days in Nicky Town where the days were full of bustling activity and the sound of her colleagues. Those days she didn't worry if her grandfather was trying to throw a coup or creating dangerous constructs or wondering if her life, or her staff's lives, were in danger. She wondered if she would ever feel safe again. Calliope wavered between bitter and depressed, too tired to feel the fiery intensity of feelings as she had earlier in the day.

"Hey, Boss!" She had been half-way up the stairs but stopped to turn and watch Nash entering from the front. He was sporting a bag weighed down with cans of soda and a large pizza box, one of the slices half-chewed in his hand. "I got pizza, you down for an all-nighter?"

"Nash, were you not at the staff meeting?" Calliope made her way back down the stairs and followed after Nash, who kept walking towards the back where IT had set up. After smelling the savory, greasy pizza she realized that she was absolutely ravenous. Aside from coffee, she had completely neglected to eat anything that day.

"Why would I go to the staff meeting?" He asked around the pizza in his mouth and took a few minutes to finish chewing and swallowing the bite before he continued. "I figured you'd fill me in afterward."

"Yeah, well, you're lucky these are special circumstances. And that I'm hungry." She stepped ahead and opened the door to the back room since Nash's hands were full. In the back with the servers and the air was much cooler, for the sake of the computers. On one of the tables, she noticed, it was cleared off except for a set of tools, and at about half a dozen of the bug-shaped drones. They settled in at the back cubicle, and she was able to gain some peace from the pizza. The food helped ease the tension headache she realized she had grown used to, and as odd as Nash was his company was comforting. Eventually, she brought their light conversation back to the matter at hand. "How are the drone mods coming along?"

"They're coming. Those things are just so freaking cool." Nash said with a thoughtful look into his can of soda. He was sitting slouched in an office chair next to her. "I'm working on the firmware to smoothly integrate the audio output. But the thing is, they don't actually have speakers built into them or anything that outputs any kind of sound. So I have an engineer buddy of mine bringing by some micro speakers he designed. He should be by sometime tonight with them. Adding them onto the drones should be pretty simple, especially since we have their blueprints. Barring any major setbacks they should be ready to go by morning."

"Did you... tell this buddy what they're for?" She found herself raising an eyebrow and watching Nash. Calliope was seated on the other office chair and was leaning heavily on one of the plastic arms.

"He's one of those friends that doesn't ask questions." He said simply, with a little shrug. Then, pulling out a flask from the pocket of his hoodie, Nash unscrewed the cap and took a long drink before offering it to her. She declined with a simple gesture and fell into a comfortable silence for several minutes. Nash looked back to her, and appeared to be examining her face for a moment before he said, "You should head to the hotel and catch a shower and some sleep."

"Is it that obvious how exhausted I am?" Calliope said this with a small frown. She knew she hadn't been taking the best care of herself since things started.

"You look like shit, Boss." He spoke flatly, "And I mean that in the most respectful way possible."

"I'm sure you do." She didn't move from her seat yet, but sighed and looked over herself. Between nervously sweating throughout the day and being out in what was now a wasteland her skin did feel a degree of grimy she had been ignoring. "Not really sure I could get to sleep if I wanted to. All of today has just been... Too much."

Nash nodded with understanding before he turned away. He set down his drink and replaced the flask in his pocket before he began digging in a nearby backpack on the ground. When he turned back around he offered what looked like a prescription bottle of pills. "Anti-anxiety meds. Should help you get some rest." Calliope looked at the bottle with a measure of hesitation before sighing and taking them. "You might wanna wait till you crawl into bed before taking those."

"Are you sure you won't need these?" She asked after reading the dosage and other information on the bottle. They bore Nash's full name as well as his doctor's name. In any other situation, Calliope would be reminding him of how this kind of medical information was supposed to be kept confidential. Not to mention the guidelines against taking medication prescribed for another person. But right now the idea of some chemically-aided relief was tempting.

"I was only anxious because I knew the end is coming and had no 'solid proof'," Nash said with a roll of his eyes and frustrated tone as if this was a conversation he'd had many times before. "But now the proof is strutting around with sick abs and making statements on international news and breaking peoples' spines!"

"... And, that doesn't make you more freaked out?" Calliope stared at the tech, unsure what to make of him at this moment.

"Nope." He shook his head, and then looked thoughtful again. Eventually, he sounded like he was coming to an understanding of himself. "I actually find it kind of... Comforting? Or at the very least validating."

"... Really?" She asked with disbelief and was now sitting up straighter to watch Nash.

"Yep." He nodded now.

"... Okay. Well." Calliope wasn't sure what to make of her tech support. They had been full of surprises lately. She uncapped the bottle and shook out several pills into her hand, and placed them on the desk before she finally stood. "I'm still going to leave you a few. Just in case."

"Fair enough. I'll let you know when the modded drones are ready to go."

"Good night Nash."

"See ya."

In a daze from the day, Calliope made her way to the hotel they had reservations with, into a room with a large comfortable looking bed. It was blissfully quiet in here, but she still turned on the TV to have background noise as she settled in. For the first time in what felt like forever she was able to leisurely strip her clothes off into a pile on the floor. HoloCat was gently set on the nightstand, where the avatar bounced and smiled and connected to the hotel's WiFi. As soon as the nighttime drama was interrupted by some broadcast rehashing Cell's announcement, she shut the television off. Seeing it once was enough for the day.

She lingered in the shower for longer than she usually would, taking time to scrub herself head to toe and wash her hair. Then, while letting the anti-anxiety medication do its work, stood in the hot spray until she was dizzy and her limbs felt like jelly. She had to admit it felt nice to feel not only clean in her body again, but that her mind was too fuzzy to think properly. Once her hair was dry and brushed she left it down to hang around her shoulders and down her back. Her arms were too tired to bother putting it back up, and there was no point keeping a collected appearance alone in a hotel room.

Calliope crawled her way into the bed, sitting up against the bulk of soft pillows. She had wrapped herself up in the complimentary robe and felt like her body was sinking into the bed. With HoloCat placed in her lap, she was slowly going through her unread emails with limited focus. As always, most of them were from work contacts. Jay's correspondence was the only one she had bothered to pay attention to. There was one sent two hours before that caught her eye, from a contact she hadn't seen in quite some time. It was one of her few personal contacts, Violet Winters, the woman who her father had charged with taking care of her once she had begun school. She wasn't surprised, Violet checked in with her more than her own father had over the years.

' _Dearest, I heard about the evacuation of your lab. It must be absolutely crushing to have to leave your work and home to avoid the possible fallout. Not to mention that devilishly handsome fiend that took liberties with this afternoon's broadcast! What a boorish display of strength, busting into the studio and obliterating that poor mountain! Please, do give me a call!_

 _With all the Love in the World, Aunt Violet_.'

Doctor Violet Winters, of course, was not her aunt by any relation of blood or marriage. Even though she had spent years with her, and felt that she was able to learn many things that a growing girl might learn from one's aunt or mother, Calliope had never felt that they were truly close. While Violet had affected a warm, even affectionate manner, it always seemed to be a performance. Calliope frowned, now thinking her fake-aunt likely had a better inkling about her father than she did herself for years now. How much had Violet been aware of? She made it a point to remember to ask later. That was a subject for another day.

"HoloCat, send an email to Violet Winters." Calliope started and had to take a moment to yawn. She tried to speak as clearly as her tired voice allowed to dictate the message, "Its good to hear from you, Aunty Violet. My team and I are safe at the auxiliary site near Central City. Its been a long day, but I will make sure to call you tomorrow so that we can talk."

Once the email was sent, and she had skimmed over the others, she felt as if there was nothing left to do for the day. The Valium had done its job of relaxing her body and allowing her mind a while of freedom from worry. She could replay the day's events with an amount of emotional distance that she couldn't manage before arriving at the hotel. The androids, the fighting, Cell, and watching him evolve into the final form he was now. 16 she didn't consider a threat to herself or the world at large anymore. 17 and 18 were out of the picture now that they had been integrated into Cell's form. That currently left Cell as a single, consolidated threat. A threat that she hadn't considered would be so amicable towards her in particular, and this she couldn't quite get a grasp on.

"HoloCat, do we still have any drones keeping an eye on Cell?" She asked suddenly.

"We do! Would you like to see the video feed?" HoloCat was back to a happy, smiling avatar that she was used to.

"Yeah, pull it up." Calliope turned to prop her head up on her hand, leaning against a pillow. She watched the avatar collapse and the feed from the drone expanded on the hologram. While it was dark, she could pick out the bright white marble of the arena she had seen built earlier that day. It looked like it had been further modified with pillars at each corner, and in the dark, she recognized Cell's silhouette standing at the center of the ring. She watched for several minutes, and even though she knew he'd probably be able to pick up the movement of the drone as he had several times before, gave another order to HoloCat. "Move the drone in for a closer look. Perch it on one of those pillars."

She watched as the drone followed through on the order, it slowly flew in. Its flight path drifted to one side as it easily landed on one of the stone constructs. From here the camera had a better view of Cell than from up in the air. She could see how he stood still as a statue, arms crossed, eyes closed and his head angled downward. Several moments passed, and Calliope held her breath in preparation for him to make any movements too quick for her eyes to follow. The camera did eventually register a small movement, as Cell opened an eye to look in the camera's direction with a sly smirk. Waiting for something, anything further, Calliope found herself breathing a sigh of relief when he finally took his gaze off the camera. He resumed his stance from before but kept a touch of a smile. Somehow that made her cringe internally even more.

 _Great_. She was effectively stalking a mass-murdering psychopath.

Eventually, her arm grew tired of supporting her head, and she finally let her head rest on the pillow but kept watching the video feed. Her eyes began to ache between the effort of keeping them opened and the light of the hologram. She slipped off to sleep, thinking about what a pompous ass Cell was.


	10. Administrative Leave Ain't No Vacation

Chapter 9: Administrative Leave Ain't No Vacation

* * *

 _She was going to be late for school. This thought terrified Calliope more then it should have. All at once, while rushing around her normal bedroom, full of things normal teenage girls had, she wondered why that scared her so. But the realization didn't stop her from frantically dressing in her school uniform, dress shirt half-tucked and her hair in a messy ponytail, and running out the door of her home without saying goodbye to her mom or dad. She didn't see them but she knew what they would say. 'Have a good day sweetheart. Do good in school. We love you.' Normal parent stuff._

 _The sky outside was burning and red._

 _Smoke rose from the multitude of fires in town. In the small shop, she passed on the way to school the clerk smiled and waved at her. Some buildings in the distance had collapsed. But her high school stood clean and untouched. She had to get to class. That was imperative right now._

 _It was a normal day. Calliope was late to class and was the last student to slink in through the back of the room. She internally cringed when the teacher noticed her._

 _"Miss Gero, late again." Belfast stood at the front of the class, his back to the class as he wrote on the blackboard. His voice held no bite. She couldn't tell what subject he was trying to teach. It seemed to be some mixture of basic calculus and ancient Sumerian metalworking. Belfast continued loud enough for the class to hear, but she knew this was addressed at her. "You should just take the time off if you're not going to bother being here."_

 _Calliope slid into her seat, the back corner next to the window, and looked around at the other students. Some of the interns were near the front of the class laughing with each other. One of her researchers was taking studious notes, another rocked and cried softly to themselves. In front of her, Nash was hunched over his desk working on something with great intensity._

 _Beside her, Jay looked nervous. He noticed her and leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, "If you need to cry, y'know, its okay."_

 _"I'm fine." She said immediately. He needed to stop worrying about her. Even if she really wasn't okay. Even if nothing was okay. Today was just a normal day at school._

 _"How are you not freaking out about this?" Jay asked in a voice that lacked emotion. "You're a clone and your father made a sci-fi novel out of your life."_

 _"It's fine." Calliope looked back up to the board. She needed to figure out where they were in the lesson. She didn't want to fall further behind. There was so much she had already missed. "I'm fine."_

 _"But all this is so fucked up. You can't ignore that." Nash said in front of her without turning around. He would be trying to hack the school's computers again, she just knew it._

 _"She said she's fine." A deep, smooth voice stated at her other side, where there were no desks. Calliope couldn't keep up with the lessons and felt a new sense of agitation, and fear, at this new distraction. The air was starting to feel hot, charged with energy. This wasn't something she could just ignore, like IT's antics. She forced herself to look away from the blackboard to direct her attention up to Cell, who was smirking at her._

 _The lights in the classroom flickered before going out, but the fires were still going outside. The flames lit everything in orange, and it threw shadows over everything. She watched as Cell leaned forward with a hand on her desk with an almost predatory glint in his eyes. Calliope felt her face flush, and her heart rate steadily increased when her body refused to lean away._

 _"... Are you here to kill me?" She asked and felt a sense of deja vu. Her heart was pounding and she couldn't separate the fear from the confusion. He wasn't supposed to be here. This was all wrong. She had final exams to study for._

 _Somewhere in the distance, a HoloCat screeched about a proximity alert._

 _"No, my dear." Cell chuckled and gave the slightest shake of his head. It sounded like he was trying to be comforting, and it wasn't helping. His smile pulled into a wolfish grin as he leaned closer, and purred into her ear with hot breath, "But I can't say the same for them..."_

Calliope sat upright in the bed, kicking at the comforter and scrambled back until her body was up against the headboard. She breathed heavily and found herself damp with sweat. Looking around in confusion it took several moments for her to remember where she was. This was the hotel room where her staff was staying. Central City. There were no final exams for her to study for. She turned her gaze to the large window that overlooked the city, where the pale blue light of morning streamed in. Nothing appeared to be on fire, and the sky was blue with the sun flaring golden. The destruction was limited to the line going from the news studio outward to where a mountain once stood.

She had never even attended high school. After acing standardized tests she was able to move to higher education. The dream did more to disturb her than anything. Calliope's dreams were not usually that vivid.

Her head ached and she couldn't tell if it was from being dehydrated or being awoken so suddenly. The clock on the nightstand with big red numbers showed 6:05 AM. She noticed then that the live feed from the drones was still going from last night, and there was Cell, still standing in the middle of his ring. Calliope frowned and looked away from the image.

"HoloCat shut off the live feed." She managed to croak out and realized then how dry and sore her throat was. She moved the avatar to a more stable place on the nightstand. Pulling herself from the comfortable bed, Calliope stripped off the sweat-soaked robe. After another shower, she drank a bottle of water.

Once again clean, dry, and hydrated, Calliope figured that now was a good a time as any to start her day. Her mind was pulling itself from the fog of sleep and she was trying to sort out all the things she would need to do that day. She was half-way through drying and brushing her hair before she finished making a mental to-do list. The most daunting task was not something she was looking forward to at all; facing up to her fears and confronting Cell about yesterday's broadcast. He hadn't included enough details for her to know for certain what was going to happen in nine days. She could guess that it would be genocide. She hoped she was wrong. This item on her to-do list, for her own sanity and comfort at least, hinged on Nash finishing the modifications of the drones. If she could avoid being within the same square kilometer of Cell, she would.

The next important item on her to-do list in order of priority was getting back to her lab in Nicky Town to try and check on Lil' Squishy. It was ironic, she thought, that she intended to avoid the older version while still taking care of the present version. What was the point even, Calliope thought to herself as she looked at herself in the mirror. The dark circles had faded under her eyes, and she looked much more alert and refreshed. She dressed in the second robe that the hotel provided in the room. It was a moment of clarity. Certainly, it wouldn't be that big of a loss to allow the embryo to be on its own. If its condition turned critical and he was to expire, she couldn't take the blame. She wasn't the one who made such an affront to ethical genetic engineering. Lil' Squishy was not her creation nor her responsibility. Her reflection frowned back at her when this train of thought crossed her mind.

She had only promised to provide life support and safety from those that sought to do him harm. That didn't necessarily include interventive care. Life support and a degree of safety. And he was in a lab in the middle of an exclusion zone for a faked nuclear meltdown, with no one else around for miles.

"That's a bullshit technicality and you know it," Calliope whispered to herself. She rolled her eyes at her own reflection and turned away from the mirror.

So she'd get back to the main lab. Try and make sure Lil' Squishy stayed alive. Everything else she needed to complete on her to-do list could easily be done from there. Of course, everything else on her to-do list was sending emails and making calls. An email for Belfast to confirm that she was taking administrative leave. A call to her fake-aunt Doctor Winters. That awkward call might be a bit easier to do from the seclusion of the lab in Nicky Town, with the topics she planned on trying to discuss with Violet.

Besides, she reminded herself, with all that expensive equipment it would be best if someone were there in person. Even if Minnows BioSolutions had a very good insurance policy that would cover the cost of anything lost to looters, Calliope would not stand on anyone stealing from her laboratory. This was a matter of principle, more than anything.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat cried from the other room.

"What is it HoloCat?" Closing her eyes she called back without moving from her spot. That was the sound of the official start of her day.

"There is a life support alert for the tank you told me to monitor!" The high-pitched voice called back. "Vital signs are beginning to become erratic! Suspected critical condition for subject 'Lil' Squishy'!"

"Craaaap. Crap, crap, crap." She muttered to herself as she whipped the robe off of her body, and quickly picked her clothes off the floor to get dress herself. Pulling on her pants, she left her blouse untucked. She was rushing out of the door within five minutes, with HoloCat strapped on her wrist. While rushing through the halls, impatiently waiting for the elevator's descent, and then jogging her way back to the auxiliary lab Calliope kept checking HoloCat's diagnostics available for the tank. Lil' Squishy seemed to be in distress, with an erratic heart rate and suppressed respiration.

She didn't

realize that she had forgotten her bra and one sock until she was well on her way back to Nicky Town. The auxiliary lab had transportation vehicles available, and with her position, there would be no one to question her borrowing one for personal use. Except maybe Belfast, but Calliope decided to worry about that later. For all the time she had dedicated to her job, it didn't seem too big of an affront to make an exception for herself this time.

Once back at the lab, Calliope entered through the back entrance as she had before when this had all started. She only slowed her pace when she had gotten into the main lab proper, and took a moment to look over the damages. There was still glass scattered near the front entrance to the main lab, and in the middle of the floor, where Cell had made his entrance and exit, respectively. The rifle filled with tranquilizers was still set on one of the workstations.

It was eerie how quiet it was in the lab, but the AC still kept it cool inside. Though with the doors broken and that hole in the glass ceiling, the electric bill was bound to be outrageous. Not to mention the fact that Calliope had neglected to shut off the lights the last time she left. Accounting would not be happy about that. But now wasn't the time to worry about the electric bill or judgment of her accounting department.

Frowning, Calliope reminded herself she would need to clean up those glass shards later. With a huffed breath of annoyance, she continued towards the back lab where she had set up her personal projects.

"Hey, little guy..." Calliope spoke with gentle tones as she lifted the lab coat she had left over Lil' Squishy's tank. The embryo was still there, his tail twitching a bit when the bright light of the labs hit him. "So, I came back. HoloCat told me you weren't doing too good. Let's just see what is going on..." Taking a seat at the workstation, Calliope pulled up the diagnostic results again and tried to figure out what was wrong.h

Time to get down to work, she thought with a small smile, and before going further pulled her hair up into a messy bun. Doing lab work with her hair going all over the place wouldn't do.

It was comforting, after the upset of the previous day, to have something calmer to work on. Especially considering the other things on her to-do list for that day. For now, it was enough to try and figure out what had caused such physical distress in Lil' Squishy. While the lab was not equipped to deal with medical situations such as this, Calliope made do with what was available. The vital readouts of the artificial womb could only tell her so much. But another ultrasound and analysis of a blood sample did give her a more complete picture. Throughout the entire process, she spoke quietly between herself and Lil' Squishy in his tank.

"Its just a guess here..." She said eventually, after perhaps an hour of work. Calliope had taken off the top of the tank the embryo floated in, and pulled on a pair of latex gloves that fit snugly on her hands. She had prepared a diluted mixture of specific salts in a solution and had managed to creatively rig a large beaker and tubing, ending in a needle, to act as an IV. With the beaker placed on a small stack of boxes, gravity would help feed the liquid through. At some point, she reminded herself, she would need to visit the local hospital for more appropriate equipment. "And it genuinely is a guess because I have not had enough time to really figure you out... I would say you have an electrolyte imbalance..."

Calliope continued to explain what she was doing, as she reached into the tank with both hands, the thin needle grasped between two fingers. In one hand she gently cradled the small body in place, and with the other was able to place the line into one of the pre-existing port that had been used in the original life-support setup. Lil' Squishy curled closer in her palm and she had a fight the tense reaction of snatching her hand away. She made sure the line was secure, and wouldn't be knocked out by the embryo twitching or moving, and removed her hands from the thick liquid. Once she had stripped the gloves from her hands, pulling them so they turned inside out, Calliope replaced the lid on the artificial womb. The tubing had been fitted through input ports so that the container could still seal. She made sure the minimal life support functions turned back on.

"Okay. Let's see if some magnesium and potassium help you feel any better." She nodded to herself and pulled the diagnostics back up on HoloCat. It would still take time for the solution to be circulated through the small body, and for the vital signs to reflect if her guess was right. Still, she watched the heart rate ticks, respiration, and indicators that told her the liquid was properly oxygenated and at an appropriate temperature. Taking a seat on her stool again, Calliope looked about at the back lab room she was sequestered in and felt lost in that moment. She didn't realize how much she relied on her usual work schedule to keep her time occupied. With that thought on her mind, she addressed HoloCat again. "Hey, HoloCat, send an email to Doctor Belfast. I'm taking administrative leave. Email me if he needs anything."

There. Two things ticked off her to-do list for the day.

She sighed and got up to make herself a pot of coffee. Back in her office, with a cup served black with sugar, Calliope took a little time for herself. Long enough to drink her coffee, eat a protein bar, and dress in fresh clothes. It felt like a day for casual dress, given that she was officially off the hook in her professional life. She wore the jeans she had tossed off so quickly the previous day, the black tank top, and the comfortable slippers she usually only wore after hours.

Her desk was still a mess, untouched from the time she had left it to go and check up on her 'grandfather'. Calliope sat down at her desk, sipped her coffee, and organized the paperwork to file away. Once it was straightened and clean, pens back in their holder, calendar marked out to show the correct date, she felt better. She still felt hesitant in moving forward in her day.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat chirped, interrupting Calliope's thoughts with a smiling face. "You have an incoming call from Help Desk agent Nash!"

Calliope had to take a breath before saying, "Okay, put him through."

" _Hey hey hey, Boss lady_!" Nash's voice came on.

"Good morning Nash. Do you have good news for me about those drones?" She forced herself to slip right back into her professional state of mind. The news would only be rehashing information that they already knew. Calliope needed to know with one-hundred percent certainty what was going on with the Cell Games. The best way to do that was to go to the source, Cell himself.

" _Hells yes I do!_ " Nash started quite happily. There was a slight slur to his words as he carried on in an almost sing-song voice. " _We got tiny mics on spy flies! You can now yell at anyone~! Anytime~! Anywhere~! As-long-as-you-got-a-network-connection~!_ "

"That's... Great Nash." Calliope squinted as she listened to her tech support. She pressed her lips together, then asked with a small frown, "Are you feeling okay?"

" _Psshh, I am GOOD... Maybe a tiny bit drunk_."

"Okay. That's... That's just great, Nash." She leaned with an elbow on her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose. Nash had proven that he was capable of doing good work, but he must have been up all night working on the modifications. Calliope didn't want to think that he was going to mess up the drones. "Have you tested the mods? Are you sure they work?"

" _Ha ha! They are tested, crested, fested with the best-est_." Nash giggled, and before she could ask what exactly the second half of his sentence meant he continued. " _I had HoloCat do a lap with a couple in the hotel..._ " he had to pause to control a fit of laughter before he went on. " _Oh, oh shit it was great. A few people think the ice machine is haunted now..._ "

"Alright, well, you could have probably found a better way to test them out. But, good job." Calliope was able to open her eyes and looked back to HoloCat. Downstairs, with the HoloCat Collective, was a better place to manage this next part. She pulled herself up and began with a brisk pace out of her office, her cup of coffee in tow. "Are all the drones deployed in the air?"

" _Hmm yep._ "

"Excellent. Well, you should head off and get some rest. I've got some things to take care of."

" _Uh-uh! I'm all pumped up now! And you clearly have something crazy planned! Who are we yelling at?_ "

"...Fine." She sighed as she got back into the back lab where the HoloCat Collective was set up. "HoloCat, take control of the modified drones. I want one to remain inside the auxiliary lab in Central City, keep an eye on the main lab... And one I want you to take to the location designated for the Cell Games."

"Okay, Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat answered happily.

" _Wait, what_?" Nash's happy-go-lucky mood seemed to falter when he heard this.

~Cell Games Arena~

That drone hadn't moved since it landed at his arena the previous night. The wings occasionally fluttered, and the legs sometimes shuffled as it readjusted itself to compensate for the wind. But Cell knew that for at least a while after it had arrived, she had to have been watching him. After the broadcast he had made on the news, it didn't surprise him in the least that Calliope would be keeping an eye on him. Her systems were likely set to alert the doctor if he was to make any kind of movement. If it were anyone else Cell would have been annoyed at the intrusion.

At some point, he reminded himself, he would need to make a return visit to that lab in Central City. It was quite exciting, the idea of seeing how Calliope would react. He didn't expect her to be excited, of course. But, hopefully, it would go a long way in cracking through that cold, ever-professional front. For now, that could wait. There was well over a week before his tournament. Today was all about basking in the afterglow of finally achieving perfection.

The location he had chosen was perfect, of course. Far enough away from the cities, he had not had the chance to consume that it was genuinely quiet. Peaceful. But Cell knew he would only be able to stand it for so long. He was not made for peaceful times. He was made for battle, conquest, bloodshed and-

What was that noise?

Cell opened his eyes when he heard the sound. Distant at first, it grew quickly into a soft buzzing similar to the drone still stationed at his arena. Different from the sound of organic insects. But the frequency of the beating of the tiny wings was different. What was Calliope doing directing more drones to him? This was sure to be an interesting development. He watched as the drone approached, much faster than the one the night before. This one was heading directly for him, and while he expected it to stop short in front of his face, the small bug-shape instead smacked right against his forehead.

Just when he had opened his mouth to say something- a quickly but carefully crafted quip that Calliope was sure to find charming- the noise started from the drone. Cell's smile immediately fell to a look of vexation.

" _Ooh man! We have arrived at our destination!_ " A drunkenly cheerful voice, definitely not belonging to his favorite doctor, came out of the drone. The small insect-form bumbled backward a short distance and righted itself to direct the minute camera eyes at Cell. This voice he recognized as Nash, the help desk agent in Calliope's employment. The same one that had hacked her communications on HoloCat the previous day. " _Wassup, big guy!_ "

"Well, I see someone was busy with upgrades. Is there something I can help you with?" Cell frowned as he asked this. The nerd was lucky this drone was acting as a proxy. Right now the only thing keeping him from obliterating the small intruder was the chance Calliope might be somewhere on the call as well. There was silence for several moments from the drone, and the lack of response weighed on his patience. The annoyance translated into a threatening tone. "I would suggest you either state your business or leave my arena and stop bothering me."

" _Oh.. Oh shit, are you not hearing her on your end?_ " Nash started with clear confusion.

"... No." Cell took a moment to answer, wondering if this tech was seriously staying on the line with him.

" _Okay, gimme a minute... Yeah... Yeah. Boss, I'm working on it... Nah, its just an issue with, like.. Psshh, the routing... Or something.._." It sounded like the tech agent was addressing someone else.

"If you're having technical issues, then perhaps you should work them out, and try calling later." Coming out to his arena, bumping into his face, and then not have everything working just seemed sloppy.

" _Nah, its cool, I've almost got it._ " The tech said in an off-handed, casual way. As if they were buddies or some such thing.

"Nash, I can assure you, it is most definitely not 'cool'."

" _Oh my god, guys, stop yelling at me. I got this_."

"- _And I hate to be_ _ **that**_ _guy,_ " This time a new voice came on the line, unmistakably Calliope. He would recognize her voice anywhere, and a smile a drawn back to his lips. She sounded about as irritated with Nash as Cell did. " _But this is why we have policies against alcohol and drug use while working_."

"Well, good morning Calliope." The intrusion was anything but annoying if she had been the one to instigate it. Cell found the annoyance melted away, and smiled into the camera.

" _Oh, am I on now?_ " Calliope sounded a bit surprised now that he had addressed her, and it must have taken her another moment to collect herself. She sounded much more composed, professional. " _Right. Good morning, Cell._ " In the next breath, she addressed her technical agent. " _Nash, you can go ahead and drop off, maybe get some sleep._ "

" _Nah, I'm good. Do your thang, Boss Lady. I got your back._ "

" _Actually, I insist. Drop off_."

"I'm going to have to insist as well, Nash." Cell spoke up, with the feeling that the tech agent might not be able to get the hint otherwise. "Besides, I'd love the chance to get the good doctor all to myself."

" _Okay, see_ ," Nash cut in one last time. " _That's the kind of kinda-creepy, kinda-hot stuff I was talking about that I totally-_ "

" _HoloCat, go ahead and kick Help Desk from the call._ " Before the tech agent could finish his sentence Calliope had spoken sharply. " _And suspend Nash's access to the drones and his domain logins. Send him an email telling him to go to bed_."

Cell waited for a few beats until it was clear that it was just the two of them on the call. No more weird, overly-friendly comments from Nash. "This is a pleasant surprise. Here I was thinking I'd have to make a trip back to your lab to get you to speak to me again."

" _Right. This seemed easier for everyone._ " Calliope answered in cool, neutral tones. " _I don't have to leave my desk, and you get to keep... Standing. There. Doing your thing._ "

"Well, I hope you know you're always welcome to stop by." At this point, he uncrossed his arms and turned as if to gesture to the whole of the arena. Cell knew she would have already seen it the previous night. "What do you think of the renovations? I think it will make the perfect place to decide the fate of the world, don't you?"

" _... It looks very nice, Cell._ " She said after what sounded like a sigh, politely enough, but as always without any joy. Cell could just imagine her with a pensive look, a slight frown and her eyebrows drawn together. As Calliope went on, her voice did take on an agitated edge. " _That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about._ "

"Oh?" Cell started coyly and turned his gaze back to the drone, and to Calliope behind the lens. "My impeccable taste in design, or...?"

"Y _our goddamn 'martial arts tournament'! The one you announced after busting into an international broadcasting studio, made a speech and vague threats, and then blew up a mountain. Do you have any idea how long it took to calm down my staff?!_ " There it was, that upset that had clearly been simmering under the professional facade. It sounded like Calliope took a pause to collect herself because the mic clearly went dead for several moments.

"Ah, so you did see the broadcast! Excellent." His smile untouched, Cell recrossed his arms. It had dawned on him earlier in the morning that, perhaps, he had given Goku and the like too much time. After the level of activity and excitement he had grown accustomed to while in his unevolved forms, simply standing at his ring was sure to get boring. He affected a more thoughtful voice and looked off into the sky as if genuinely pondering. "Although, you're right... I might have been a bit vague about what will happen when I win."

" _... Yes. That's the part I wanted a bit of clarification on._ " When Calliope came back on through the drone, it sounded like she had successfully calmed herself back to the point of being able to hold a conversation.

"Well, after I win the tournament, I'm going to wipe humanity off this worthless little planet." Cell spoke with a chortle. "And then the rest of the universe." He was finding it delightful to be able to talk with her like this. Moments passed, and there was no form of reply from the drone that fluttered in the air staring at him. He went on to further clear up the matter. "Just in case you were wondering, don't worry. I still won't be killing you, Calliope."

Several more moments passed, and there was still no reply from Calliope. The mic hadn't gone silent as it had after her small outburst before. Eventually, Cell frowned a bit and was about to ask if she was still present.

" _... Is that suppose to make me feel better?_ " She asked rather flatly. It almost sounded like an accusation.

"I would think it should. Unless you have some kind of death wish, Doctor? I've never known you to be outright suicidal." He said this with a smirk, teasing. Even if she did have a death wish, he wouldn't be obliging without a good enough reason. "A bit reckless at times, but still."

" _You know what, I think we really need to have a separate conversation on that too. Just because of future-me.._." It sounded like she was gearing up for another orderly rant before she trailed off. Calliope was likely distracted by the interloper to their conversation, behind where Cell stood she would be able to spot him. "... _I'm sorry, but, who the hell is that?_ "

Cell closed his eyes for a moment, and while maintaining his smirk raised a finger to the drone to indicate an interruption to their current discourse. There would be plenty of time to continue this conversation with Calliope.

"Ah, Goku." Cell spoke to his new visitor, but keep watching the drone.

"Yeah, that's right." It was clear that Goku was all business. Perhaps here to size up the competition?

" _Wait, that's Goku?_ " Calliope spoke up now, either confused or surprised. The drone made a sudden movement to zip a foot to the side, likely to get a better look. Cell internally sighed. He supposed it would do no harm to introduce the two of them. Goku wasn't the sort to seek out a weak teenage girl to get to him. Especially considering her innocence in the events leading up to this point.

"Uhh, yeah, that's me." Now it was Goku's turn to sound confused because of course it was. It sounded like the fighter had been caught off guard as well.

"How about I speed things along here." Opening his eyes, Cell half-turned to acknowledge his newest visitor. "Calliope, this is Goku. You might remember him as the man your father invested so much time and effort trying to kill. Goku, this is the illustrious Doctor Calliope Gero. Doctor Gero's daughter."

" _Why_." This was more a statement than an actual question on Calliope's part. The drone swung back around to point its camera eyes at Cell. He could practically feel her incredulous glare.

"Ooh yeah. Trunk mentioned something about that." Goku, in all his naturally carefree nature, for the moment dropped his severe front to flash a smile to the drone. "Hello Doctor Gero, uh, junior I guess?"

" _Merriweather_." Calliope was quick to reply as the drone adjusted itself to look back at Goku, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. " _Its Merriweather, and I really prefer not to be associated with the family business._ "

"Okay then, hello Doctor Merriweather."

"... _Hi, Mr. Goku_..." She said after an audible sigh.

"Good, well now that we have that out of the way." Cell cut in now, interrupting any further awkward conversation the two might have. He turned his attention back to Goku, the only real competition to be had in the upcoming tournament. "Here is where the fate of the universe will be determined. So what do you think?"

"I don't know. Seems kinda puny if its suppose to decide all that, wouldn't you say?" Across the ring, Goku seemed to understand that the pleasantries were over. His smile had faded and a hard look fell over those green eyes. "You're not the first person to try and rule the universe with a sword of injustice. They all failed, and so will you."

Silence fell between the two warriors as they did not need words to size one another up. Cell's smile had dropped as well, his intent and focus on the subject that he had been carefully crafted to kill. Neither moved a muscle, but their energy reached out to press against each other. A near-harmless test of wills. The sky darkened and the air crackled with electricity in response. It took barely any effort, but the world around them seemed to fall away, and the laws of nature bent to accommodate such a display. At his side Cell registered when the modified drone that Calliope had been speaking through popped. Its circuitry was overloaded, and the small bug fell away in a small puff of smoke. On the pillar off to the side the drone that had been watching him reacted similarly, shocked beyond its capacity to handle.

"I'll be your first opponent, so leave everyone else out of this until we meet in the ring, agreed?" Goku said this with a severe tone, while around them the smaller rocks were being lifted and dust swirled off and away.

Ever the protector, Cell thought. With how long he had already waited for this, nine more days was nothing. Fine. There were plenty of ways to keep himself entertained without killing off the population. He felt his lips tug into a crooked smirk again, the only agreement he'd show his opponent.

"You will pay for your crimes." This was the sentiment Goku left him with before disappearing in the same manner as he had arrived.

The air settled, and Cell calmed his own powers. It took several minutes for the sky to clear itself, but everything had returned to how it had been before. A beautiful day with clearer skies and nothing around for miles. Arranging himself back in the center of the ring, and crossed his arms back over his chest. Even with the display and sanctimonious speech, he still felt there was no need to worry. When the time came, he would be able to crush Goku, the rest of his friends, and then the rest of the world.

The thought did occur to Cell, after several minutes, that he would still need to continue the interrupted conversation with Calliope. He was certain that those two drones were just a fraction of what she had available. There was a chance that she may pilot another back, hopefully without a drunk help desk agent this time to try to get them to function correctly.

A few hours, Cell decided, he would give her a few hours to sort out any technical difficulties.


	11. Dysfuctional Family Relations

Chapter 10: Dysfunctional Family Relations

* * *

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

"Oh, what the Hell?" Calliope leaned back in her seat, the video feeds she had been watching showed nothing but black. An instant later the system notified her that the drones that were stationed at Cell's arena had gone offline. "... Great. They broke my drones with their super manly staring contest." She huffed a sigh and looked over to Lil' Squishy, who floated in his tank peacefully nearby. "Future you is an ass."

That conversation should have upset her more than it did, Calliope realized. Cell was set on killing everyone, aside from herself, for some reason, if he wasn't defeated. This news was shocking and disturbing on multiple levels. If ever there was a reasonable time to have a nervous breakdown, this would be it.

There was nothing she could do. This was a situation she was ill-equipped to deal with.

Instead of crying or acting out in a panic, she felt a cold calm settle over herself. Perhaps she had finally reached the point where her psyche had numbed itself against this kind of upset. It was about damn time, a cynical part of her mind thought bitterly. Still, she pulled the bottle of anti-anxiety medication from her pocket and took half a pill with a sip of her coffee. It would be better to head off any panic attacks before they had a chance to send her crawling under a desk and crying, Calliope reasoned.

"Alright." She started, addressing Lil' Squishy as much as herself. "So... We know what Cell's is going to do. Commit genocide and universal domination, or something like that, anyway..." The embryo didn't respond except to twitch his tail a bit. Holding her mug of coffee in both hands, Calliope kept watching the small body. "And from the sounds of it, Goku is going to be the guy we'll want to root for... I'm sure "grandpa" is rolling in his grave to hear me say that..."

Enough time had passed for the solution to circulate through Lil' Squishy, she realized, and Calliope took the time to pull up the diagnostics from the artificial womb. She scanned over the respiration rate, which was improved, and heart rate showed a more even pace. Her earlier guess had been correct, it would seem. This brought a smile to her face. It was a small victory, and a distraction, but she would take it.

"That's a bit better now, isn't it? Good." Nodding to herself, Calliope felt a rare aimlessness. Again she looked around the back lab she was in. She turned back to Lil' Squishy and shrugged. "Well. That's almost everything off my to-do list for the day..." She still needed to call her fake-aunt Violet. This could wait until she refilled her coffee, Calliope thought, while swirling the dregs of her cup and hopping off the stool.

By the time she returned to the back lab, with a fresh hot cup of coffee, she could feel the Valium taking effect. It had a gentler hold than the previous night, and she felt like she could still function mentally and physically as usual. Just calmer, and her worries were more easily brushed aside. This explained so much about Nash's general attitude.

"HoloCat, call Violet Winters." Calliope drew in a sip of coffee while the call connected. There was silence over the line, but it was clear that the call had gone through. She gave Violet a moment to greet her, and when she didn't, decided to start the conversation. "Aunt Violet? Are you there?"

" _Dearest! I have been waiting for you to call all day! Oh, it has simply been TOO LONG since we've last talked!_ " Doctor Violet Winters, in her ever-lively, dramatic way of speaking came on the call. There was always a feeling of being yelled at whenever speaking with the woman.

"Hi, Aunt Violet."

" _Well... Where are you on my screen?! I'm afraid I'm only getting the audio! Oh! I'll need to call one of my younger researchers, I swear I can't figure out these computers sometimes!_ "

"No, it's okay, Aunt Violet, I'm not video calling you." Calliope tried to explain.

" _That simply won't stand Calliope!_ " Violet exclaimed, but there was no anger to her raised voice. " _I insist that you call me in such a manner that we can have an actual conversation!_ "

"Violet, it's fine its... Aunt Violet?" She paused as the call disconnected in the middle of her sentence. Calliope sighed and pulled herself up from her seat again. At the far wall where there were a couple of computers with cameras for video conferencing. Normally they were set up for the different labs to share results, or for when one of the senior researchers needed to supervise. Sitting down at the desk chair, Calliope made sure to look behind her to check that Lil' Squishy's tank wasn't in view of the camera. She didn't need additional questions being raised now.

" _Calliope! There you are darling!_ " Violet near-shouted when the video call went live. The screen filled with the image of a darkened room, with the woman on the other end lit by a desk lamp. She was clearly the same woman that Calliope knew, but she looked so disheveled, exhausted. Violet had always been a pale woman, but she looked even more so now as if she had been sickly. The white hair that was usually pinned back in a bun, tight and controlled, looked a mess as if Violet had slept without taking it down. If she had slept at all. Her eyes had a wild look to them. She did not smile but spoke enthusiastically. " _My god, look at you! Is that how you're wearing your hair now? It looks an absolute mess!_ "

"... It's been a busy day." Calliope managed to answer after a few moments. She had been taken aback by the appearance of her fake-aunt. Violet Winters was the woman who taught her that a professional woman should always appear to be in complete control. Between the clothes she wore and the way she put her hair up, everything had to be carefully manicured and controlled. Hardening herself, she reminded herself that she needed answers. Before Violet could ask any further questions or go off on a tangent she cut in with a sharp, quiet tone. "Did you know?"

" _That you have decided to dress like a stay-at-home mother-?_ " On the other end, Violet frowned. This was not the usual flow of their conversations.

"About my father, and what he was planning." Cutting off Violet, Calliope did not raise her voice, but it filled with a coldness that was unlike her.

"... _Oh... Oh, darling._." This was all Violet could say for several moments, at first looking surprised. Calliope was frowning now and used nothing but an icy gaze to press her fake-aunt to speak further. Her usual dramatic way of speaking dropped off, and I was like speaking to a different person. "... _Did he finally tell you...?_ "

"He got himself killed. And left everything to me." She said simply. "His research told me everything."

" _... I see..._ " Violet nodded. " _I'm sorry for your loss._ "

"Don't be. He had it coming. What did you know?"

" _Not as much as I would have liked. I didn't want to pry. It's not polite. At this point, you probably know more than I do... You know, you Gero are a paranoid lot._ "

"Don't call me that." Calliope narrowed her eyes at Violet and saw her fake-aunt go quiet in surprise again. "Do not lump me in with him like we're the same person."

" _Still a bit of a sensitive subject, I see._ " Leaning back in her chair, Violet sighed and reached for something out of the camera's view. She pulled back a cigarette that she placed shakily between her lips and lit it with a match. When had she picked up smoking? " _He told me that you were his daughter. That I should keep up the illusion that he was your grandfather going, and see that you grew into a fine young woman._ " Violet wasn't looking at the camera as she spoke now. She paused to take a long drag off the cigarette and blew a puff of smoke and chuffed mostly to herself. " _And I would normally say I did a fine job of that.. but tank tops and ponytails in the lab_..."

"What else did you know?" This came out more like a demand than a question. "Did you know that he was out of retirement? Or, rather, never retired in the first place?"

" _Darling, I don't know what you expect me to say._ "

"I want someone, for once, to tell me the goddamn truth."

" _Well... Of course, he never retired_." Violet sighed now and flicked off the ash on her cigarette. " _After the collapse of Red Ribbon, he went underground. Had to take things at a slower pace, and rebuild. For years I had thought he was dead, to be perfectly honest... But, darling, why are you making such a big fuss about this now?_ "

".. It's complicated."

" _If your father is dead, I have no doubt you would be able to shut down any project he had in the works. Aside from yourself, of course._.." Violet was watching her closer now, and looked to be mulling over a thought. "... _Unless he had made something that you don't have the ability to stop. Something perhaps already too far along and already deployed?_ " It sounded, now, like she was working out her train of thoughts as she spoke and pulled herself up to get closer to the camera. Her usual lively tones were sneaking back. " _And knowing your father he wasn't the kind of man to deploy something that wouldn't be noticed by the world at large. No, the Doctor Gero I knew had a flair for the dramatic and bold! If he had a project completed after all this time it would have to be taking the world by storm, like Vesuvius erupting anew! Not entirely unlike that dashing villain on the news yesterday!_ "

Calliope felt uncomfortable under this level of scrutiny. Her fake-aunt examined her like a specimen with every word she said, searching for a reaction

or recognition.

" _Calliope, dearest, is that what has you so upset?_ " She leaned closer to the camera and spoke in a quiet, oddly mad way. " _Is his Cell character something your father created?_ "

"... Technically speaking... Yes." It was Calliope's turn to look away from the camera before she could answer. She leaned with her elbows on the desk and clasped her hands together. There was no way she could explain this to Violet. "... It's complicated."

" _Is that what happened to him? Your father_?" It sounded like Violet was trying to be comforting. It came out more like morbid curiosity.

"No. It was another project that killed him." Calliope sighed as she said this. Looking off to the side she muttered, mostly to herself. "Cell probably would have sung his praises and talk his ear off as well..."

" _So you've talked with him?! With Cell_?" Violet had recovered her normal attitude.

This question made Calliope wince. "... Yeah..." She collected herself before she spoke again. She wasn't even sure what she wanted out of Violet at that point anymore. Her fake-aunt didn't have much information on her father's projects. But, perhaps, there was another subject she might be better informed on. Calliope looked back to the camera and tried to redirect the flow of the conversation. "Violet, did you know anything about Project Heiress? With me and the other... Clones...?"

" _Of course I did._ " Violet nodded at this question. " _I was the one who introduced Gero to Doctor Spring. Apparently, your father didn't want to play the gamble of natural birth, and didn't have the knowledge to engineer his own offspring to the desired quality._ "

"Do you know where my mother is?" Calliope found herself asking. It occurred to her that she hadn't had the time or motivation to think about her other parent. For her entire life, she had assumed her mother and father were already dead. She wasn't even sure if she would want to meet her, or her clone-sisters, Thalia and Melpomene. At this moment, she felt the need to at least know. "Or, even, who she is?"

 _"No, I don't. I would think that would be something your father would have kept in his records._ " Pausing to take another puff from her dying cigarette before snuffing it out somewhere off camera. " _But I do have the next best thing. Spring is still around, at least he should be. I'll see if I can find his contact information and email you, dear. That man knows how to keep impeccable records, I would be shocked if he didn't know where your mother is_."

"I would appreciate that. Thank you." Calliope excused herself before the conversation could circle back around to anything she did not want to discuss again. She set an alert on HoloCat for any further emails received by Violet. Returned to the comfortable silence of the empty lab, she felt like she could relax again. Until she heard back from her fake-aunt, she realized, she wasn't sure what to do with herself.

Cleaning up the lab from the past days was a good occupation as anything. There was still glass all over the lobby, the main lab, not to mention the coffee mugs left at workstations. Paperwork was left scattered on desks, and now she noticed that there were some samples left unsealed. On one desk one of the disease-resistant, high-yield variants of corn had sprouted a stock that stood a foot tall now. The lab was, objectively, a mess. How had she not noticed this before?

Oh right, Calliope thought to herself, she had been too preoccupied with the possible end of the world.

~Cell Games Arena~

Cell had a growing suspicion that Calliope was not, in fact, going to be sending another drone to continue their earlier conversation. He had resumed his position in the center of the ring, arms crossed, now facing the direction the drones had come from before. Towards Central City, and more importantly, the auxiliary lab of Minnows BioSolutions.

After three hours, exactly, of waiting and listening for the tell-tale buzz of the drone's approach, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He couldn't very well let it go on like this, not when she still didn't hold him in high regard, and clearly saw him as some kind of threat. The sooner they got over this difficult hump the better it would be in the long run. One thing was certain, he wouldn't stand Calliope, of all people, having such an antagonized picture of him in her mind. Not when they had just started a dialogue.

It was with a sigh that he launched himself away from his arena, full of purpose to correct the situation. If she wasn't going to bother meeting him halfway in their discourse, he wouldn't give her any option but to deal with him, face to face. With this in mind, Cell closed in on Central City once again. On the outskirts, he slowed to a stop above the squat, squarish building of concrete, the auxiliary lab for Minnows BioSolutions that he had left Calliope at not even 24-hours before. He had been planning on dropping by at some point in the days before his tournament, and now was as good a time as any. Better, to keep the momentum of their conversation going.

This time Cell did not drop down to the rooftop in his descent but instead landed himself before the double door entrance. While the street that the auxiliary lab occupied was not a main street, the few people around froze in terror as they watched him. After his display yesterday, he wasn't surprised that this was the reception he'd get. No matter, Cell thought, he had business to attend to. Ignoring the common folk, he turned his attention back to the building before him.

He couldn't help but crack a smirk as the automated doors slid open at his approach. With any luck, there would be no need to break anything in this laboratory. He still needed to apologize to Calliope for the damages done to her lab and made a mental note to do just that as soon as he located her. This lab was much more cramped than the one in Nicky Town, he noticed at once. Passing through the lobby, Cell also noted the distinct lack of staff at the entrance where a secretary would likely sit. He picked up of the sound further back in the building, likely where the main lab was located, and where Calliope and her staff would be working.

There were at least a few dozen people, barely working at the various workstations in the main lab. Despite the openness of the space, the lack of windows made the building feel enclosed. No one had noticed him yet. What fun this would be.

"Excuse me!" Cell called out, and at once all eyes in the lab were on him as the room went silent. He saw the exact instant the researchers and other assembled staff recognized him, and the sudden fear that left them frozen. Looking between them all, and not seeing Calliope among them, he spoke loud enough for the lab and with a severe tone to let them he was not playing. "Good, I have your attention. I'm looking for Doctor Merriweather."

There was no immediate response. Just a gaggle of scared-stiff faces too overwhelmed to respond. A few of the researchers muttered prayers to their god. A few looked like they wanted to scream and cry, but didn't dare invite such attention to themselves.

Under normal circumstances, this might have been a more entertaining venture to pursue. But Cell had other business to attend to. "Well?"

In a surprising move, from somewhere in the back of the lab, one of what must have been a senior researcher started approaching. He was a sturdy-looking older man with a white beard and a hard look to his eyes. Stopping a few meters short, as if to place himself between Cell and the research, the man kept a frown and stern, measured gaze. It was then that Cell recognized who that must have been, Doctor Aiden Belfast, from the staff pictures present in Nicky Town. Effectively Calliope's second in command. When Belfast spoke it was in a gruff, hard tone. "Doctor Merriweather isn't here."

"Really now." Cell narrowed his eyes down at the doctor. While it was tempting, he reigned in the urge to crush the man where he stood. "How disappointing. You wouldn't happen to know when she will be back, would you?"

"No, I don't." The hard-faced man kept his expression stony. "And we have policies against divulging personal information about employees."

"... Of course, you do." Cell said coolly. As much as he respected this man for standing before him without so much as a stutter or hesitation, it was an irritation to know that Calliope had just left. If that was even the truth. She wasn't exactly the sort to let someone else stand up in her place like this. Taking a breath, and affecting a sigh, Cell scanned the faces of the inconsequential men and women.

"Now, I would appreciate it if you would let these people get back to their work." The senior researcher said this last part over his shoulder to the rest of the lab with an indignant tone before looking back to Cell with stony eyes. "And please leave the premises."

"Of course you would. Perhaps you would be willing to give her a message for me."

"Hmm." Belfast didn't respond except with a rough grunt of acknowledgment.

"Tell her I wish to continue our conversation from earlier." Then, raising a hand, he intended to clear out half the lab of these pathetic excuses for scientists. If they had been paying attention to his broadcast they could guess the imminent destruction he was about to bring. These people were inconsequential to him. If Calliope thought he was a subject she could ignore, he was going to show her she was sorely mistaken. This was sure to get her attention.

" _Hey_!" Cell stopped at once when this was shouted at him. It was Calliope's voice, full of rage and fire. A small drone zipped from somewhere right in front of Cell's face, and he could practically feel her glaring through the tiny camera eyes. " _Leave. My nerds. Alone._ "

Despite the clear anger in her tone, Cell couldn't help but smirk

at the efficiency of his plan. Of course, she would come to intervene on behalf of her staff. He hadn't expected her to react so quickly.

"Ah, good, so you do still have more of those little drones." Cell had directed his attention to the drone. He eased his arm down from the threatening stance, as a show of good faith. "I was starting to get worried when you didn't come back to finish our talk."

"... _Well, you and Goku were busy staring so deeply into each other's eyes, I had assumed our conversation was over._ " Calliope spoke in a dry, humorless voice. Cell frowned at the drone, unsure what to make of the new attitude the doctor had adopted. " _Not to mention you guys broke my drones with that light show. I didn't want to risk losing any more._ "

"You have my sincerest apologies for the damages." He tried to sound cordial. But couldn't help but think that if the drones were a bit sturdier she could have had a front-row to an impressive display.

" _And you took it upon yourself to come to my lab, and terrorize my staff._ " This sounded, again, less like a question and more like an accusation.

"Your associate mentioned that you weren't here. I thought it might be the motivation you needed to come out of the woodwork."

" _So if that didn't work you were going to, what, kill off a bunch of my employees? Damage more of my property? Destroy thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment?_ " Aside from her employees, it seemed, the next priority on Calliope's list was the material possessions of her laboratory.

"Perhaps." Cell gave a small shrug when he said this. He had intended to leave the lab worse for wear but didn't see a purpose to now that he had a way to get to Calliope. No reason to let her know that.

"..." For a moment the drone fell silent. But Calliope came back on with a sarcastic tone. " _That's really mature of you. Really._ "

"Well if there was an easier way of getting in contact with you, Calliope, I would have used it" Cell decided to ignore her comment, but did frown with hardened eyes at the camera.

" _You could have made an appointment with the front desk_."

"There was no one _at_ the front desk."

".. _. There wasn't?_ " She sounded surprised at this, and there was a break in her accusing tone. The drone hovered in silence for a moment before Calliope spoke up again. " _Would you excuse me for just a moment?_ "

"Certainly." Cell crossed his arms and watched as the drone spun around to address the collected staff. As much as he didn't appreciate the interruption, he was interested enough to see where she was going to take this.

" _Alright, who was suppose to be at the front desk?_ " Calliope suddenly bellowed. The collected staff seemed to wince at once. From the middle of the lab a pale, long-haired main hesitantly put up his hand. " _Tess? Tess, you're fired._ "

"Belay that order, Tess!" Doctor Belfast hollered without looking back at Tess, who was now crying. He stared at the small bug-shaped drone where Calliope's voice was broadcasting. "Merriweather!?"

" _Belfast_." She replied in simple acknowledgment.

"What the Hell is this, some kind of spy-fly?" Belfast spoke in a gruff, familiar way to Calliope. Apparently, she hadn't notified all of her staff about the latest developments in her life. "More importantly, where the Hell do you get off trying to fire people while you're on leave?"

" _Uh. Okay. Well, one, don't worry about it. Two, I'm still president of the board so I can fire whoever I damn well please. And three, Tess is paid to be at the front desk in case we get non-employees who need to be registered as visitors so that we don't have unauthorized people in the lab_." She said this with such verbal agility as if she was used to arguments like this with Belfast. " _And if I'm not mistaken, Cell is back here without a visitor's badge!_ " The drone swiveled back to point the camera at Cell, and he couldn't help but smirk at what he could only guess was Calliope glaring at him from wherever she was. This was certainly a side he hadn't seen of her before. She sounded... Out of sorts. " _I bet you didn't even sign in, did you_?"

"Of course I didn't, because, as I said, there was no one _at_ the front desk." Cell replied evenly. Uncrossing his arms, he spoke in a way he hoped sounded disarming. A vicious hand would not get what he wanted from her, not when she was clearly under stress. "Now, as amusing as it is to stand here and watch you berate at your staff, I would appreciate it if we could have some privacy. Calliope, why don't you just tell me where you are? We can continue our conversation from earlier, and leave your employees to continue what little work they're getting done."

There was silence from the drone for several moments again. From its position hovering in the air before him, Cell watched as the small bug turned about to look at the gathered scientists. Obviously, she was thinking over the situation, weighing the needs of her staff against the bitterness she still held for anything associated with the name Gero. Then, it adjusted again to look back at him.

" _Okay._ " Calliope finally said with what sounded like a sigh. The bug tilted back to look at the scientists one more time. " _Belfast, we'll talk later._ " Fluttering back around, Cell's eyes followed the drone as it flitted passed him back towards the entrance. " _Come on._ "

Finally, Cell thought, he was getting somewhere. He turned his back on the room full of frightened people in their lab coats, and without a word followed the lead of the drone. As soon as he had left the main lab he heard Belfast telling people to 'stop crying and get the Hell back to work'. This did not surprise him. In fact, it would have been more of a surprise if they had been able to collectively continue with their work as if nothing had happened. He took it as a compliment to the impression his perfect form had made on their ordinary, uneventful lives.

"I'm going to take a guess here and say that your staff hasn't been fully informed." Cell began as they got back to the lobby. The drone stopped to turn about-face in the air, and once again look at him.

" _Of course they haven't._ " Calliope replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. " _I'm not going to risk blowing up my career for something that's none of their damn business..._ " She paused, after saying this before muttering mostly to herself. ". _..Crap, I am going to have to figure out what to tell Belfast later..._ "

"Hmm, you could always tell him the truth." There was a sort of wry snort of a laugh from the drone, and Cell frowned into the camera. "But we're getting off topic again. Where are you, Calliope?"

" _I'm in... Oh for fuck's sake! Shoo!_ "

"... Did you just tell me to 'shoo'?" Taking a moment, Cell pondered this. Was she literally 'shooing' him? Perhaps the poor girl had lost her mind. For anyone else, with the amount of stress the recent events must have caused, this would not be surprising. Quite a lot had happened in such a short amount of time, he reminded himself. The safe, quiet life Calliope had built far removed from her father's influence had come crashing down and still was even now. In his time she hadn't handled it in stride at first, either.

She would be fine.

" _No! Not you, Cell... Well, actually, yes, I'd like you out of my lab, and away from my employees, but I was actually talking to the goddamn raccoon in my lab_." Calliope explained hastily, with a tremble of agitation growing in her voice. She went on explaining, sounding distracted, and in the background, there was the chattering of a forest creature. Most likely the same that had invaded her laboratory. " _Which probably got in because someone broke the doors leading into the main work area before also breaking my damn glass ceiling... And because some of my employees didn't clean up their granola when they were evacuating_."

Broken doors and glass ceiling? Cell smirked as he realized where Calliope had gone to. She had returned to familiar ground, far from the company of her staff. And, of course, she was still upset about the damages to her property. All things considered, it was the perfect location for them to meet. Away from the annoying stares and awe of pathetic mundane people and their tendencies to scream and panic.

"You've gone back to Nicky Town." He confirmed his thought out loud.

" _I have._ "

Stepping around the drone, Cell started towards the exit proper. Perhaps leaving this lab undamaged would ease some of Calliope's anxiety. He spoke off-handed over his shoulder before getting to the door. "I'll see you shortly then."

"... _Yeah. Alright. I'll be here._ " He just caught her saying, mostly to herself, and another sigh. Then, even quieter, " _Great. Super. I guess that's what we're doing today._.."

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

There must have been some point in her life, Calliope reasoned, that she could have done something differently to avoid this absurdity. She could have gone with her team during the initial evacuation. She could have made an effort to keep an eye on her 'grandfather' more. She could have majored in liberal arts. Instead, she was in a town evacuated due to a fake nuclear meltdown trying to chase away a raccoon, and expecting a visit from a super-powered mass murderer. For some kind of supposedly-polite conversation.

"No, no. Goddamn it. Get out of there!" She half-shouted, forgetting to use a quieter, calming tone of voice to try and sway the creature's fearful nature.

The raccoon in question, despite Calliope's attempts at negotiating and nudging with a broom, did not agree with the idea of leaving. The raccoon, instead of going back out into nature where it came from, decided the server room was a better place to be.

"Okay! Fine! Stay in there and piss all over our expensive networking equipment! Maybe you'll find the giant tarantula and piss on it too!" Calliope said loudly, armed with a broom she had been using to sweep up glass shards from the floor. She stood in the doorway to the server room, scowling at the hiding place the raccoon had taken refuge. Its fluffy ringed tail stuck out from under one of the server racks, and she could see the yellow glow of eyes watching her from the shadows.

She stared at the raccoon for what felt like minutes. When it made no further movement or hissing, she found herself sighing. Finding a calm voice, Calliope eased the door closed. "That's fine. Just... Just stay there. We'll try again in a bit."

If everything went well with Cell, whenever he would arrive, and provided her lab was still standing afterward, she could attempt to re-home the raccoon. Perhaps somewhere in the woods. She made a mental note to seek out the local wildlife office, they would likely have catch-and-release traps. If the forest creature was smart it would stay in the wilderness. Calliope sighed to herself, broom in hand, and left the hallway where the IT department was located.

"Hey HoloCat," Calliope started again, while her mind was on the topic of Cell showing up at the auxiliary lab. Her association with anything dealing with her family was something she didn't want to become public knowledge. While the genetically-engineered super-soldier wasn't publicly linked to the Red Ribbon army or Doctor Gero senior in, yet, it was another affiliation she wasn't eager to share. The fact that he had shown up at her lab, and asking for her by name was another issue she'd have to clean up. She spoke to HoloCat while replacing the broom in the janitorial closet, "Send an email to all staff currently stationed at the auxiliary lab. Attach a copy of the non-disclosure agreement they signed at the start of their employment. Tell them what happens in the lab, stays in the lab, and I would appreciate their discretion considering recent events and certain visitors to the lab in Central City. No talking to media or family members, and please avoid posting on any social media regarding today's incident need to be deleted immediately."

She refreshed her coffee and walked back towards the main lab area to wait for her guest.

She allowed herself to use the term 'guest' loosely.

"... And send an email to Karlia in our legal department, I'd like her to call me as soon as she can. Just... let her know we may have some damage control to do." It wasn't that Calliope didn't trust her staff to keep today's events to themselves. But people tended to act in unpredictable ways when under extreme levels of stress. She needed to make sure every avenue was covered.

The glass was cleaned off the floor, the mugs of coffee and assorted snacks her staff had left at their work areas had been cleared away. At one of the workstations, the sample of a new strain of corn grew happily in the sunlight, oblivious to the recent incidents. Without the actual people here or any work she needed to get done, it was blissful to be in the lab. Calliope carefully picked up the planter for the corn that was left out, and gently placed it on a workstation near the middle of the lab. Calliope had intended to check the progress of its growth against known varieties, with the paperwork out and pen in hand to mark down statistics. Instead, she found herself satisfied with looking over the plant, admiring it, and couldn't get many notes down onto the paper. The small, bright green stalk grew out of a sterile-white planter, from the nutrient-rich soil. It was a new strain her lab had engineered, made to grow faster and stronger. In just a matter of days, it had already grown a foot tall with flourishing leaves.

Occasionally her eyes flicked up to the entrance at the front, where the door was broken. She reminded herself to call someone to get that fixed, at some point. Even with circumstances as they were, she couldn't let her laboratory fall into disrepair. Though she did realize it might be hard to get someone out into an area that was so close to the Shine power plant until it was officially declared safe to return. Calliope had gone back to examining the corn stalk, gently tugging at the leaves and looking at the segments that would turn into matured corn later in its life.

Maybe her mistake was working primarily with vertebrates. Corn was rather unlikely to try to murder everyone and make a pretentious display of themselves. This strain was the work of a team she didn't work directly with often. At that moment Calliope envied them.

"Doing some gardening?" The now-familiar, deep voice broke Calliope out of her thoughts. She looked up from the plant to the front of the lab, where Cell stood in the doorway where the glass door into the main lab. He was watching her carefully, his arms crossed and wearing a bemused smirk. It struck her then how out of place he was in this environment; made of sculpted muscle and sinister intent that would not leave her be. With an all-too-human face and pale skin that she could consider handsome if she could forget everything else she'd seen of him. Even medicated, even with his promises that she would be spared, she knew she wasn't truly safe.

"Huh?" This was the first thing to come out of her mouth, and it took a few moments for Calliope to gather her thoughts. How long had he been standing there? "Oh. Yeah. Someone left a sample of corn out during the evacuation. I was just checking its growth while waiting for you."

The only bright side that Calliope could find was that, despite his murderous tendencies, Cell was at least capable of holding an intelligent conversation. There was no reason, that she could see, why they couldn't have a reasonable discussion. She was raised to be a calm, collected individual, and that's how she would act. Treat it like a meeting with lawyers, she reasoned with herself.

"You've clean up in here." He said, sparing a glance around the lab as he began slowly taking steps towards her.

"Yeah. I had my work cut out for me between people ignoring the memos about food at their workstations," Calliope began, with an even tone and no hostility, "and, you know, _someone_ breaking my doors and glass ceiling."

"Ah, I see you're not going to let that go, are you?" Cell spoke with that teasing tone again, and it was enough to annoy her. Not to the point of yelling and throwing accusations and becoming belligerent. But enough. She couldn't tell if he was trying to irritate her or be friendly.

"No, probably not." She paused for a beat and glanced up at the hole in her ceiling before returning a pointed gaze to Cell. It was easier to be calm and collected when she was medicated. Even when facing a mass murdering sociopath. "I liked my ceiling. It really let in the light."

"Its actually letting in more light, this way, you know." Cell regarded the hole in the ceiling's glass before looking back to Calliope. He had reached the other side of the workstation she was situated at.

"That's not the point. It has a large, chimera-shaped hole in it." Calliope spoke with a frown.

"Well, I apologize for damaging the fragile glass works of your lab." Looking back to her, Cell gave a small shrug before continuing, "Although, in my defense, the doors were locked. As for the ceiling; it was the fasted route out of the lab considering I had my enemies coming after me, and I doubted that you want a brawl breaking out in your precious lab, with so much breakable equipment."

"... Fair enough." She said after a moment and was about to launch into a short lecture about how the doors being locked was a weak excuse for shattering them before she stopped herself. Closing her mouth after a moment, with a puff of breath out of her nose she inwardly chided herself. This was supposed to be a calm, reasonable discussion. She was the daughter of a mad scientist and a professional. This should be well within her wheelhouse. Sliding the planter to the side, she gestured to the stool that would be situated on the other side of the workstation. " Have a seat. You wanted to pick up our conversation from earlier?"

"I did." Cell reached down, pulling the stool further from the station before sliding into the seat. He rested one arm on the table top, affecting a casual posture as he resumed watching Calliope. "I'm glad to see you've calmed down. It sounded like you were going to burst a blood vessel the way you went off in your other lab."

"In any other situation I would be embarrassed, but I guess I don't react well to people making threatening gestures towards my staff." This wasn't entirely true, Calliope did feel aghast at herself for losing her cool on her staff, and in front of Cell. She kept reminding herself that these were not normal circumstances, and she was genuinely playing it by ear. "But Tess had that coming. He's been underperforming for months now. Anyway..." Time to dive back into the uncomfortable, surreal topics of discussion that she would rather avoid. She turned her full attention back to her visitor and felt her voice take on a more serious tone. "Cell, why are you so eager to talk to me? Why go to the trouble of messing with my employees to get to me?"

"I'd hardly say it was any trouble at all, Calliope." Was the easy reply, which seemed to bring a broader smile and a chuckle from Cell. Of course it did. The idea of terrorizing people seemed amusing as anything to him. "Besides, while I hate to admit this, I may have given the world too much time between now and my tournament. After days of activity, hunting, fighting, and finally attaining perfection, standing around at my ring is just as boring as you can imagine. So it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to talk, get to know each other a bit better while I give my opponents the chance to train. Not that it will matter, of course, but I am hoping they'll provide a better challenge when the time comes."

"Mmhm, right."

Calliope nodded, not necessarily in agreement. She managed to keep a neutral expression. Calm and collected, she reminded herself, it was just like talking with their lawyers. Or any number of meeting with her colleagues. If nothing else, she could try to satisfy her curiosity. When she didn't immediately continue, it seemed Cell was more than happy to keep the conversation going.

"But I'm getting off topic again. I wanted to take the time to sit down and talk to you for some time now, Calliope. You see, I can't help but sense the antagonistic feelings you have towards me, and I'd like to change that." Cell spoke in a way that she supposed was suppose to sound friendly. Calliope, content with listening for the moment, arched an eyebrow in question. "Considering our previous relationship, I would prefer if we were amicable. And I know what you're probably thinking- with how far back into the past I had to travel, and your insistence on distancing yourself from your father and his work, you really had no part in contributing to the glory of my current form." He paused for effect at the moment and continued in a somewhat more serious tone. "But that doesn't change who you are. You can change your name, your associates, and put as much distance as this world will allow you to have between yourself and your father. You're still the daughter of Doctor Gero, and as much as you hate him, this is the legacy he left to you. Call me sentimental, but that makes us as good as family."

Calliope had to take a breath, then slowly let it out through her nose, and managed to restrain herself from her usual reaction to being associated with her father. This conversation felt awkward enough without flying into a disagreement about her family life. She had laced her fingers together, propped up on her elbows in a thoughtful fashion.

"... I don't hate him, per-say." She managed to say, calmly, "You have to understand, he spend my entire life lying to me about most things- Hell I even thought he was my grandfather up until he died."

"And, of course, you harbor a great deal of bitterness for all that." Cell began, and his smile was fading, he must have sensed that he touched a nerve. "I'm quite sure he had his reasons for misleading you."

"His reasons were bullshit." Calliope cut in, with a sudden coldness to her tone. She could feel a bit of her composure slipping as she quickly continued. "He thought it was somehow easier to explain that my parents had left me an orphan than the truth. That in itself is a testament to the kind of unethical, selfish man he was, and perfectly sums up the ideological differences we had. That's why we could never see eye to eye. He wouldn't let go of being a _goddamned mad scientist_." This last part she said with a particularly harsh tone and caught herself before she went off into a full-blown rant. Now was not the time, she reminded herself, placing her hands on the table. "And... It is still a sensitive subject for me to talk about."

"I can see that."

"But, you know, it is actually kind of funny." She started again, with a joyless half-chuckle. "Because if he had retired, and just stopped all this business then I wouldn't be in the position I'm in right now. Future-me wouldn't have been put in the position she was in to feel the need to do whatever work she did on you, and I wouldn't be worrying about the end of the world when you may very well kill everyone." Calliope leaned on her hands and sharpened her glare on Cell again. "Just to clarify our previous discussion, you're planning to, in your own words," she made sure emphasis her point with air quotes, "'wipe humanity off this worthless little planet'. Correct?"

"... That is correct." Cell answered, and it seemed her sudden change of pace had him watching her more closely. Trying to gauge where she was going with this train of thought. She despised being scrutinized like this.

"Okay. So, again, just to clarify." She quickly started again. Calliope had to close her eyes, and couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of it all, leaning her elbows on the table. "Your plan, provided you win your tournament-"

"When." Cell corrected, without missing a beat. "When I win."

"-Right. Is to kill everyone." Calliope paused for just a moment, "Aside from me."

"That is the plan, yes."

"And you want to maintain some kind of good relationship with me, is that what I'm getting from this conversation?"

"I would prefer that, yes." Cell was starting to look at Calliope with a curious gaze and sounded on the edge of annoyed. Perhaps he hadn't expected this conversation to go this way.

But this was not a topic she was going to let slip by without a thorough discussion. She attempted to keep as much calm as she could. Flying off into a deranged, shouted rant would only serve to weaken her arguments, and make her look like a crazy person. Calliope Merriweather was not a crazy person.

"So, you want to maintain an amicable relationship with me, while at the same time planning to literally burn and salt the world and leave me, alone, in the ashes," Calliope said this with a distinct edge to her voice, as if her clarification was an underlying question of Cell's sanity. She flashed a wry smile that didn't light up her eyes. "Is that what I'm getting from this conversation?"

For several moment Cell didn't respond. He watched her with a curious gaze as if trying to formulate a counter-argument to her statements. Silence hung between them, tense and questioning. Eventually, he recovered a sly smile and leaned in closer with an arm on the table top. "I can see that particular topic has struck a nerve."

"We're talking about the genocide of my species, Cell. Of course it's going to 'strike a nerve'."

"Well, Calliope," He started again, using a warm tone that nonetheless got under her skin. "At this point, I could probably back-peddle and make all kinds of promises, in an attempt to try and relieve your worries. I could say something like 'oh I'm sure I'll get bored before I kill 'everyone', or 'the threat of completely killing off humanity just rolls off the tongue so easily' and I couldn't help myself. But I think it's important for you to know that I respect you too much to lie to you. To reiterate, yes, I intend to kill every human on this planet. And then move on to the same to any other remotely-civilized society in the galaxy, perhaps the universe, because at this point, I'm quite sure that's the only way I'm going to have any form of a challenge in my complete, perfect form."

Calliope resisted the urge to put her head down in her hands in exasperation. In a way, it felt like talking to a brick wall. An omnicidal brick wall. That wanted to be her friend. She frowned over at Cell with a creased between her eyebrows, which drew together tightly in frustration.

"You see how you killing off everyone and having a relationship on good terms with me, might be mutually exclusive, right?" She asked, eventually. "In fact, it's not even a question. They are mutually exclusive."

"I understand how you can think that. Let me offer this counterargument;" Cell then asked. The amused smile had faded from his face again, and he seemed to have abandoned any mocking, playful manner. "Why do you care if the rest of them die?"

"Is this a serious question?" Calliope found herself blurting out after a moment. This is not a direction she had expected to go. HoloCat blinked up at her wrist, and while it didn't interrupt, it did look at her, to Cell, and then back to her. An envelope icon its head showing she had received an email sent at higher-priority. She ignored it for now.

"It is." He gave a small nod, and from the look in his eyes, appeared to be sincere in the matter. Cell glanced at HoloCat as well when the avatar popped up, but focused on Calliope again.

"I don't think that's a fair line of inquiry." She shot back immediately. "You're asking me to defend not killing off a whole civilization. Or multiple civilizations."

Another email came through that HoloCat silently alerted Calliope of, this one also sent at the same indicated importance. Multiple important emails that needed her attention. Great, she thought sarcastically.

"Fine. Then let me illustrate my point. Not terribly long ago, before I had attained perfection, I came across an interesting article in a magazine. It mentioned your career, your status as a young genius, and the work you've done on various genetic engineering projects. Despite all this, they still managed to paint you in an unflattering light. I believe there was mention of you as 'trying to play God' and how those goats you engineered were 'actual, legitimate, spawns of the Devil'."

"... You read that article in Kabuki?" This time Calliope did lower her face to place in her hands. This conversation felt like it was getting out of control. She huffed a sigh and spoke with exasperation through her fingers. "Goddammit... You know that's a tabloid right? They also run articles discussing whether the Earth is flat. They were the ones that got a bunch of people so whipped up about sporks being implanted with government spy equipment that they actually petitioned to try and have them banned within Nicky Town city limits..."

"And just like that, you've provided additional points to support my argument."

"No, no I haven't." Calliope snapped, lifting her head up from her hands. She spared a glance at HoloCat at her wrist, who was polite enough not to audibly interrupt, but clearly showed she was getting a call. It was Karlia, head of the legal department. For the moment ignoring it, she turned her attention back to Cell to quickly continue. "Just because a small percentage of the population is too dumb to understand or respect evidence-based science- HoloCat." for just an instant going off topic, Calliope looked at the digital avatar, "Tell Karlia

I'll call her back." turning her gaze back to Cell, she resumed her point with clear vexation, "-Doesn't reflect the population as a whole!"

She could feel the muscles of her shoulders tensing. The start of a stress headache brewed in a tightening band around her head. It felt like everything was collapsing around her.

"... Calliope, I don't want you to think me unsympathetic or ignorant of the responsibilities you're beholden to." Cell started after a moment. He had been scrutinizing her, but briefly closed his eyes now. "I can see you're stressed, and your attention is being called for elsewhere."

"It's being called for because now I have to do damage control with my career." She shot back with a frown. Calliope normally liked to think she excelled at managing work-related stress. The recent events had put that opinion to the test.

"We can continue this lively debate later." To her surprise, her guest smoothly eased himself to stand. Looking back at her, Cell was once again sporting a bemused smile. "I'll give you some time to get your affairs in order, and come back in, let's say, three days. Ten o'clock."

Calliope found herself reflexively standing as well, as she would at the end of any other meeting, legal or otherwise. Before she could stop herself, she found herself speaking with agitation, "No. No, I'm done with this discussion." Hadn't she been trying to handle this situation delicately? "And I don't want to see you back in my labs again."

For what felt like too long, Cell didn't say anything, though he did regard her with a steady gaze. With that same stupid smirk, a none-too-small part of her pride felt as if he was mocking her. Damaging her lab, terrifying her staff, waltzing into her labs unannounced, talking about genocide so casually. Just who the hell did he think he was?

"I think we both know you can't stop me." He said simply and leaned with his hands on the workstation. She felt frozen in place but stubbornly held a cold front. This was too similar to the nightmare she had had that morning. "So, assuming you'll be here, I will see you in a few days, Calliope. Otherwise, I'll seek you out at your other lab." This last part sounded laced with a threat, not aimed at herself, but her staff.

Because of course, he wasn't above using her employees as leverage. All at once, Calliope was reminded that she was, truly, dealing with a sociopathic mass murderer. She wouldn't have been surprised if Cell took her down where she stood at that moment.

"... I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to change anything." She had recovered a colder tone now, internally furious. At that moment, any fear she felt converted directly to anger. Calliope had been prepared to go off on a righteous rant, filled with ire and possibly expletives, but was stopped when Cell put up a pale hand in a gesture.

"All things that we can talk about when I return." He stated and had begun turning to leave. Cell spoke as if he was oblivious to her indignation. "As always, its been a pleasure talking to you."

"Just... get out of my lab..." Calliope spoke through a sigh, sounding deflated. She watched him finally leave, and only when she couldn't hear the odd squeaking of Cell's feet did she sit back down. She gazed at the door at the front of the lab, which use to have an opaque glass security door, for several more minutes.

She suddenly felt exhausted. Leaning forward, she laid her aching forehead against the cool surface and lightly banged her head against the workstation. Unable to bring herself to any further action Calliope felt her mind go blank and numb.

"Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat chirped.

"What." She didn't lift her head to reply.

"... You have 13 high-priority emails waiting for a response and a voicemail from Karlia." The avatar said in its normal, happy tones. It seemed that now Cell wasn't in the immediate vicinity it could resume its normal programming.

"Okay." Calliope drew in a deep breath and sighed.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" HoloCat sounded worried now.

"... I'm fine." She said eventually but didn't move.


	12. Duct Tape and Zip Ties

Chapter 11: Duct Tape and Zip Ties

* * *

~Cell Games Arena~

Despite how their discussion had gone earlier, Cell still considered it a success.

Especially compared to the stiff tone of the previous interactions Cell had had with this version of Calliope. At the least, she didn't seem as closed off and frightened of him anymore. The fact that she was comfortable enough to argue and debate was promising. It might not have been the warm welcome he had hoped for, but it was a step in the right direction. Calliope's distress now was necessary in the long run.

So let her get rage and scream, for now, Cell reasoned. Let her sort out her professional life and come to terms with her new reality. She would tire herself out, given time.

After leaving the lab in Nicky Town he had gone back to his arena and resumed his meditations. The sun had sunk into the mountains along the horizon, in a spectacular display of fiery oranges and purples. A lovely end to the day. Outside of the muted sounds of nature, it was quiet. Even the insects and birds seemed to know better than to stray too close to the tournament grounds. There was time to relax, remotely keep tabs on his enemies, and even ruminate on how far he had come.

~Gero Mountain Lab~  
~In The Future~

Silence was a new sensation.

The pain of existence, he was used to that by now. But complete silence was unusual.

The computer had gone quiet some time ago. The automated recordings would sometimes pause during a system update, but this time the usual lessons did not pick up. Instead, it was a prerecorded message from Doctor Gero, his creator. This in itself was not unusual, Gero had spoken to him on many occasions. But the tone and content of the message were worrisome.

"If you are hearing this, it means that I have died."

Dead? Doctor Gero was dead?

"Either my enemies, or more likely, one of my more... disobedient creations have killed me."

This was not good. His little heart beat faster with concern, and something close to sadness. If Gero was not there then who would be to see him to his perfect form? Suddenly, despite the computer's constant company, he felt desperately alone. Stranded. Something in the computer must have recognized his panic because moments later there was a cool feeling coursing through his veins. Then an artificial, forced calm. This was the only way the computer knew how to sooth, with sedatives.

"But you needn't worry. My master computer will be able to see you through your growth from here, should my secondary plans fall through..."

Secondary plans? Of course, Gero would be wise enough to have a backup plan in the event of his own demise. That was enough to inspire hope. He did not want to be left alone.

"This is something I should have done before the start of this project, to be honest.." Doctor Gero's said with a lamenting tone. It took a moment for him to continue. "I have a daughter, her name is Calliope."

Calliope... Cell thought this name to himself several times over, trying to familiarize himself with it. Taken from Greek mythology, the name of a muse. Calliope directly translated to mean beautiful-voiced. The eldest, and wisest of the muses. A goddess of eloquence, who gave this gift to kings and princes, and ruled over the domain of epic poetry. Where did a daughter named after a muse fit into this?

"- She will be able to continue overseeing your development. Her expertise is better suited to see that you fulfill your potential. Yes, she is young but, she is smarter than I could have hoped for at her age. Almost 17, and already she has a promising career in genetic engineering..." Doctor Gero sounded thoughtful as he spoke now. It was clear he felt a great deal of pride for her. "Doctor Spring promised to deliver the highest quality progeny for me, and after watching her grow I have no doubt that he did just that... Even if she is not immediately willing, I have no doubt that she will eventually come around..."

Doctor Spring? Did Gero have his own child engineered? Created in a lab, designed with a purpose, like he was? He hoped she would live up to her namesake, and to her family's name. So much to live up to. Greatness would be expected of her.

"Calliope will be notified of my death as well, of course. She is to inherit everything, outright. I will try to make her see the importance of seeing you to completion." Gero's voice paused again, but when he spoke again the smile was obvious in his voice. "You needn't worry. Calliope is very good at what she does. I promise, she will take the best care of you. Goodbye, and good luck."

Eventually, the computer's teachings and works came back on. Cell could not focus on them at the moment. The young embryo was filled with mixed emotions. Sadness for his creator's demise, that Gero would never get to see him grow. There was also apprehension, and yet excited at the prospect of the daughter's involvement. In the quiet stillness of the lab, he wondered what she would be like.

~Cell Games Arena~

This version of Calliope was full of surprises.

"- _No. No, that's not the case at all._ " Calliope insisted through a drone that hovered before him. " _I never agreed to our appointment later in the week. You just set a day and time and then walked out._ "

Cell had expected her to be busy pacifying her employees. There would be emails for her to answer from her employees, discussions made with her various departments. Maybe arrangements to have Terry officially terminated from employment. He did not expect her to be before him, via drone, arguing with him.

"Of course I did." Cell held a steady gaze at the minute cameras and Calliope on the other end. "If I had left setting a meeting up to you, I'm quite sure I wouldn't see you again."

" _Gee, I wonder why that would be._ " She shot back immediately, intoned with sarcasm. There was plenty of background noise present on the call that Cell tried to decipher and place.

"Calliope, I hope you don't think I'm a blind fool. I understand that this situation is less than ideal in your opinion." Cell said this with a slight frown, listening to the noise on the call. For a few moments throughout their conversation, there was the rustling of fabric. Perhaps she was getting changed, or dealing with the mundane chore of laundry.

" _Less than- Less than ideal?! Are you serious-_ " She shot back immediately, and for a moment it sounded like she would launch into a fiery lecture. There were a few angry, frustrated half-words spoken before she stopped herself. After what sounded like a huffed breath Calliope spoke simply, attempting to recover her composure. " _You know what, no. I'm not doing this. I am not having this conversation right now._ "

"Then why fly one of your drones all the way out here?" Cell pressed back without hesitation.

 _"Wh- Because!_ " She stumbled to start. Perhaps it was a mystery to herself even. A moment later Calliope continued while trying to hide the uncertainty in her voice that strengthened to a vague sarcasm. " _Because I feel like you don't understand how much I don't appreciate your complete disregard for myself and my staff. Which, yes, I realize you probably don't care us mere mortals down here, or the standards of practice we implement in our laboratories to try and maintain a safe work environment. I, however, do, just as I care about the psychological welfare of my employees._ "

Oh. Cell realized with some amusement, she came here to yell at him. Well, as much as her composure would allow her, anyway. If her coworker was right, Calliope was currently on some sort of leave. There wouldn't be the usual projects and schedule to keep her occupied. She must have been going stir-crazy without her usual work to keep her busy. There would only be so much she could do for her staff. All that energy needed an outlet.

Fine. He didn't mind helping wear her down a bit. There was nothing else occupying his time.

"Ah, right, your staff. You know, I'm not surprised that you need such strict practices and guidelines considering how fragile they are." Cell could help but smirk into the camera as he spoke. "And I'm not just talking physically, either. I'm quite sure at least a few of them were crying after I did _literally_ nothing to them."

" _You were about two seconds away from killing at least a dozen of them._ "

"Well, that would have been a good reason for them to start crying."

" _No. No, this is exactly what I'm talking about. My people aren't paid to stand up to mass murderers, they're paid to be skilled in their field of study. If they're in the same room as someone who is capable and more-than-willing to hurt or kill them, crying is an acceptable, expected reaction_." Calliope snapped back coolly. " _So I would appreciate it if you would leave them be in the future_."

"And I'm sure you'll give me no reason to interrupt them. For the time, anyway." Cell hardened his gaze into the camera. He knew she would recall their previous conversation, and recognize the implications. "I'm guessing you haven't even told them about their impending doom, have you? Might be worthwhile to mention in the next memo you send out."

" _I'm pretty sure they got that when you did your live televised special_." The noise on Calliope's end picked up again. There was some unidentifiable sound like she was roaming around her lab and doing... Something.

Had she always been this stubborn? It felt like a lifetime ago that he had first dealt with her.

~Gero Mountain Lab~  
~In The Future~

Even small and undeveloped, he could perceive the shifts of energy of and around living things. Since Doctor Gero's last departure from the sub lab, it had been silent and still, outside of the constant droning of the master computer. It was not cold, but... lacking.

Weeks passed. After two months he started to wonder if Calliope would come for him. Perhaps she had gotten lost on the way here? Or Gero's message never got to her? Had the same forces that killed Doctor Gero taken Calliope as well?

He had almost given up hope when something at the edge of his perception changed. There was the dim noise of someone in the lab, and the hint of life force. Given the remote location and the secretive nature of the sublab, it could have only been one person at one point.

"...Do we still have network access?" Between the physical limitations of his ears at this stage of development and the muffling effect of the liquid, he could only pick up bits and pieces of conversation. The voice was feminine and spoke smoothly to a higher, distinctly more artificial one. "Go through the files... Compile an overview and let me know when its ready for an overview. Focus your efforts on whatever the latest android projects were."

She had come! Who else would know the location of the laboratory, and how to access it? That had to be her! It had taken her longer then he would have expected, but Calliope had come! This was excellent, now they could truly get to work. He wouldn't have to rely on the computer alone.

He could not hear much of what she said as she muttered bitterly. But she did not leave. He didn't need to be able to sense life energy to feel her staring at him now, she must have been standing directly before him.

"... And that would make this... the genetically-engineered super-soldier monster-baby..." She sounded unhappy, distressed even. "... I can't... I can't deal with this right now..."

Wait... What did that mean? Hearing her talk like this made his heart drop with disappointment. But, she had to continue her father's work. Why else would Calliope seek out the sub-level laboratory? Doctor Gero had said she might not be 'immediately willing'... She needed time to think things through, yes, that was it. There was no need to worry. She needed time to settle in, and familiarize herself with the lab.

Cell found he was able to relax with her here. He hadn't even realized he had been tense. There was work to be done. He was able to focus on the master computer's lessons better, but still kept Calliope's presence in the fringe of his attention.

Hours passed. Calliope was still there. She was either muttering to herself or her artificial assistant.

"Oh. Look." She started with a sarcastic deadpan, "Tiny, bug-shaped drones that are equipped to collect genetic material. Great. Bet I won't find a single consent form for the people he harvested from, either."

It sounded like she was still trying to sort through everything in the lab as if Gero had given his daughter limited information on his activities. For hours it went on like this. She would occasionally make sarcastic comments about the research she found. Sometimes half-yelling at the walls, once it sounded like she was throwing things about the lab in a rage. It gave Cell the chance to overhear the interesting revelation Calliope was having.

"-So grandpa or dad or what the Hell ever decided 'Oh well I guess my plans for taking over the world didn't work out!" She shouted, and there was a crashing sound as if she had thrown something across the lab. "Better clone myself up a bunch of daughters, and only raise one, and lie to her for her whole life so that when I get myself killed she has so many things to talk to a therapist about!' Yeah! That's super great! Awesome job grandpa! A plus work! Absolutely stunning!"

It sounded as if she hadn't been fully informed. Why had Calliope been under the assumption that Gero was her grandfather? Was she unaware of her origins? Was that the information she had uncovered? Surely Doctor Gero would have illuminated his own daughter. It was hard to believe that she would have been left with that little guidance without reason.

Calliope was incredibly bitter towards the late Doctor Gero. Discovering that she had been lied to did not sit well. After the initial distress at this, she occupied herself completely with other things. Her attention never stayed on one subject too long before focusing on something new. At one point she even stood before him again, setting up analyses and scans on him. This was promising. Did this mean she was coming around as Gero promised she would?

From what he was able to catch from her conversations- with herself, her digital assistant, and calls- there seemed to be a massive threat she was trying to resolve. The androids, 17 and 18, the very same Cell would need in order to achieve his perfect form, we're loose upon the world. They were causing all manner of chaos, killing people and destroying things. This caused Calliope a great deal of distress. She blamed Doctor Gero. Apparently, she had been under the delusion that her father was retired.

"I can't tell if these plans are just plain stupid and won't work..." Calliope said suddenly, likely to herself. "Or if its stupid and will work, and I'm not sure which is worse..." For the past several hours she had been focusing on the documentation of androids 17 and 18, but she referred to them as 'Team Asshole'. Calliope had started offhandedly calling him 'Lil Squishy'. Cell did not mind. He didn't have a way to communicate with her, not yet. It was... endearing.

"Hey HoloCat, have you finished that genetic analysis on, ah, Lil' Squishy?"

"I was only able to do a partial sequence, Doctor." Her AI assistant answered back.

"Why only partial?"

"Well..." For the next several minutes Calliope argued over how the results were censored, over how components of the results were either 'unrecognized' or 'not currently allowed by the Minnows BioSolutions standard practice of responsible genetic-engineering'. She eventually called technical support.

" _Calliope, what the shit!_ " A new voice came over some form of communication, this one a man, sounding very concerned. " _Where the hell are you? Belfast is starting to get really pissed that you just disappeared_."

"Yeah, I know, Jay. Look, I need you to give me your admin approval for something. HoloCat is holding up some research I'm doing."

" _Wha- What? Seriously?_ "

"It's important, Jay." She spoke coolly but clearly losing patience.

" _You're doing research at a time like this!?_ " The technical support sounded surprised.

"I am a scientist, and research is part how I solve problems, Jay."

" _How are genetically-modified crops and cattle going to solve the problem of the flying people shooting lasers and killing people?_ " That's funny, Cell thought to himself, he was neither a crop or cattle. But he would solve the problem of the androids when he was able to.

"... I just need your admin approval." Calliope said sternly but followed up with some reluctance. "But, I think I may have some information on Team Asshole, which is what I'm calling them..."

" _Oh. Oh, shit really?_ " the voice on the other end dropped his nervous banter for just a moment. Was this a normal conversation between Calliope and her coworkers? Employee? He wasn't sure what the relationship was.

"Yeah, turns out they're androids. Well, technically cyborgs, since it looks like they're based off organic models..." Calliope must have forgotten to mention him, the genetically-engineered super soldier designed to absorb said androids.

"..." The voice on the other line fell quiet for several moments. " _I fucking knew it!_ "

"... Really. You knew it was essentially killer robots."

" _Well I figured it was either that or inter-dimensional beings disguised as people while retaining their original powers_."

"... Jay. I really just called to get your admin approval for this thing."

" _Huh? Oh, right. HoloCat, just do what she says!_ "

"Okay!" The chipper artificial voice called.

" _Hey, Cal, not to be nosy or anything..._ " Jay started to ask, quiet enough that it was hard to pick up everything he said. " _But where are you getting your information from? About the killer robot assholes?_ "

"... That's, um." Calliope faltered on a direct reply. "I'd rather keep that confidential."

Interesting, did she not want her coworker to know everything. Why didn't she just explain?

" _Okay, that's cool. I get it._ " Jay seemed to accept this answer with no effort. " _Are you okay? Where are you?_ "

"I'm fine, I'm at a secure location. How's everyone at the lab?"

" _Not great... Everyone is getting pretty nervous._ "

"And Belfast still isn't even considering evacuating, is he?"

" _Nah, you know what a stubborn ass he can be. He wants some kind of government-issued statement before even considering evacuation_." Sounding disheartened now, Jay sighed.

"Dammit. I know it doesn't necessarily matter where our people go, but it's better to have them mobilized and ready to move. There's no telling where or when another attack is going to be coming."

" _Actually, I wanted to run something by you._ " Speaking careful and quiet, Jay continued without prompting. " _I think I might have a way to get people to evacuate._ "

"How?"

" _Well... Okay, first off, you cannot tell anyone about this. Like ever. And I need you to promise me there will be no repercussions for myself or my department._ "

"Yeah yeah yeah, no repercussions. Out with it, Jay." Calliope said this sternly and listened as her technical support explained. From what Cell could gather, there was some manner of a plan to gain access to a nuclear power plant, hack its computer system, and trick the monitoring systems into thinking the reactor core was going into meltdown. "... Fake a meltdown. Seriously?" She didn't sound convinced either.

" _I wouldn't suggest it if the situation wasn't serious_."

"You know that sounds absolutely insane, right? Just the fact that you have something like this planned."

" _Dude this isn't even my plan, this is something Nash has had planned._ "

"Creepy Nash? The guy who brought a tarantula into the lab in his hoodie, and then lost it in the server room?" Just what kind of people did Calliope work with?

" _Well.. yeah_."

"... Remind me to have a meeting with you and Nash at some point."

" _Haha, yeah, sure._ " Jay nervously laughed. After clearing his throat, he was able to continue again, sounding more concerned. " _I'll get him on it. Should we expect you back any time soon?_ "

"I'm not sure," Calliope replied. Of course, she was still standing near his tank, but now it felt like she must have been staring right at him. "I still have some things to take care of. I'll try to keep you updated."

~Cell Games Arena~

"Calliope." It wasn't the sound of feedback or interference in the signal, he could tell that. It sounded like Calliope had been rushing around the lab, and there had been at least two doors slammed. "What are you up to over there?"

" _I'm multitasking._ "

"Here I would have thought you would still be pacifying your staff."

" _Oh yeah, they're just fine._ " She said this with no small amount of sarcasm. " _And not that its any of your business, because it most certainly is not, but I have a meeting to get to. In person. My senior-most researcher is asking questions, so I have to go try and explain to him why you showed up at my lab asking for me._ " There was the distinct sound of engines in the background. Cell wondered if he would have to show up at the auxiliary lab at the appointed time. That would be amusing; seeing the terrified assembled staff again, with Calliope standing before them, attempting to be stoic but clearly frustrated. " _So yeah, thanks for that._ "

"Oh? And what are you going to tell them?" Cell didn't intend this to be any kind of threat. He was genuinely curious. It was doubtful that she would outright lie to them if pressed. That wouldn't be the ethical thing to do. By the sounds of it, she had been able to skirt the issue so far.

There were several moments of silence from the drone before Calliope spoke again. She suddenly sounded uncharacteristically dubious ". _.. I... I don't know. I don't have a good excuse for any of this_."

"Here's a thought." He started before she had a chance to think out loud to herself and go off on another tangent. "You could tell them the truth."

" _The truth_." She replied flatly, and he could just imagine her staring with that incredulous gaze, an eyebrow arched and a slight frown.

"Yes." It seemed obvious to Cell, at least, that it would be the easiest way of going about things. A full explanation of her father, his work, the responsibilities she'd been left with would leave the inquiring parties with few questions.

"... _Yeah. No. I'm not doing that. Why I would ever do that?_ " Calliope brushed off the simple solution immediately. Without a thought. As if telling the truth was lunacy.

Again, Cell wasn't surprised at this. His Calliope wouldn't have considered it a viable option either. She always saw the associated with the name Gero as her greatest shame. Perhaps there was something he could do about it, here and now.

"Isn't it exhausting?" Cell began, thoughtfully. "Hiding who you are, trying to manage this double life? Feeling the need to do 'damage control', as you call it?"

From the drone Calliope had fallen silent, either thinking or caught off guard that he would ask. There was just the sound of engines humming in the background over the tiny mic, an indication that she was on her way back to Central City. " _Well... It didn't use to be like this. Its never taken this much effort to try and maintain... this.._." She sounded tired. Another sigh came from over the call, and when Calliope started again it was with strictly professional tones. " _Look, I didn't fly a drone out here for a philosophic discussion about how I live my life._ " This was said with a certain finality like she was drawing the conversation to a close. " _Cell, I would appreciate it if you didn't randomly show up to either of my labs. Just to be clear, I never agreed to any meeting later in the week. It's not on the books as an appointment. HoloCat's not going to be reminding me, or calling you to confirm. I'd like to be left alone._ "

"To which I'd like to remind you, that you have no way of stopping me." Cell spoke in his own friendly, but professional way, "And additionally, in case you didn't catch my thinly-veiled threats earlier, I'm not above killing off your staff in the case that you don't keep our appointment."

Not that it would matter after the tournament, but Cell chose not to mention this.

 _"... You make maintaining a good rapport with you very difficult, Cell._ "

"It wouldn't be difficult if you stopped pushing me away, Calliope."

" _... Right... I'm going to go now._ " She said this and he could feel the glare under tight eyebrows in her voice. It sounded like a definite end to this conversation, which she further confirmed when the drone turned about-face to begin the journey away from his arena.

"Wait." Cell stated more than asked. He raised a hand towards the drone, and with a gesture and a laughably minute amount of energy to stop it in its tracks. Then, with another small movement drew it back before him.

" _What_?" Sounding a mix of surprised and upset, there was an audible groan from Calliope through the drone.

"Leave the drone."

" _Why? So you can destroy it like the other ones?_ "

"Hardly. You're traveling back to your other lab for your meeting, and I'm betting you've got a while before you get back to the city." With a broadening smile, Cell released the drone to flutter before him. "That gives us the perfect opportunity to clear the air. Get everything out into the open."

".. _. Seriously? What the Hell is that even suppose to mean?_ "

"I'm sure you have plenty of frustrations just waiting to get off your chest, Calliope. We can get them out of the way now, and hopefully avoid you breaking out into long-winded, self-righteous, intermittently mean-spirited rants later." After saying this with an especially teasing tone, Cell internally kicked back and waited for Calliope to take the bait.

The line on the drone had gone silent, muted, for several long moments. He was about to inquire if the line was disconnected before Calliope spoke up again. Now her voice was quieter over the engines in the background, almost growling. "... _I do not rant_."

There it was. That was the nerve he was hoping to strike.

~Gero Mountain Lab~  
~In The Future~

Calliope said her goodbyes to Jay and ended the call. For several minutes after she was quiet and motionless. Cell could still feel her staring at him like a tickle in the back of his mind. Was she running another examination on him?

"Well, this is awkward. I suppose I should introduce myself properly..." Calliope said with an even, professional tone. Oh. Oh! She was talking to him! "My name is Doctor Calliope Merriweather. I'm a genetic-engineer, and usually, I work at my lab, Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town... I'm also Doctor Gero's daughter... Or, well, the clone of his daughter. Apparently its a more complicated situation than I originally thought..."

Hello Calliope! He thought happily, even though she wouldn't hear him. Did this mean she was interested in helping him? Why was she calling herself Merriweather?

"We weren't exactly close, which I suppose is at least partially my fault. I distanced myself as far as I could from him. Hell, I even went as far as changing my name to avoid any kind of association with the Gero name. Being as young and ambitious as I am draws enough attention, I didn't want to run the risk of being associated with a mad scientist who lead the Red Ribbon Army..." Some of her composure seemed to weaken to something sad, but honest. A moment passed, and Calliope recovered from it and continued. "And it's my understanding that Doctor Gero intended me to work on you. Which makes sense, given the projects I usually work on. My career has been focused on improving the genetics of a variety of living organisms, specifically vertebrates. Hell, I even have experience in cross-species engineering. Between that and the poor state you're in it really shouldn't be a surprise that you were outsourced to me..."

'The poor state' that he was in? What was that suppose to mean? She needed to run another scan. Clearly, she didn't see and understand yet. He was created of the strongest warriors in the galaxy! Could she not see he was destined for great things?

"However, considering the intentions of this project, and the means my father used to obtain the genetic material you are made from., I will not be able to overtake responsibilities of improving your hereditary position." Calliope said this without emotion, and at first, Cell didn't understand what she was saying. It hit him then what this one-sided discussion was.

No. No. No.

"The ethical implications of working on this project are too great for me to conscientiously participate."

No!

"I'm sorry for the disappointment."

She would be truly sorry once he developed enough to leave this tank!

"I don't intend to hurt you, you don't need to worry about that. I'll make sure you're safe here, and that the life support system is kept active. But I can't knowingly condone anything further."

Cell had never wanted to kill someone more than he wanted to kill Calliope at that moment. He did not get much time to think further on the subject before the sedatives hit his system again. The blunt refusal from Gero's daughter was too much to handle. It was easier to handle before when her dismissal was just speculation.

~Cell Games Arena~

"- _And even if, hypothetically, I were to 'rant', I guarantee that it is never without reason. But you know what? Fine. I guess this is what we're doing tonight! I'm totally sure that my problems with you can be resolved just by a good old fashion session of 'talking about it'!_ " Calliope said this with a growing tone of frustration. While she didn't raise her voice, it was apparent in how the pace of her words picked

up. " _But before we do that, I think its important that you know that the words do not exist in any known language that appropriately conveys just how infuriated I am at the current situation. And while I owe most of this stress to you and your whole 'Oh, look at me, I'm an omnicidal jackass who feeds on people and attention!'_ " This last part was spoken with particularly harsh sarcasm.

If this didn't work to help gain her trust, that would be incredibly disappointing. Cell was almost certain these were topics Calliope wouldn't be able to talk about with just anyone. Of course she had the nerds in her IT department. But it wouldn't be professional to burden them with such personal complaints.

"- _I do recognize that you are not the only person in existence to blame. So in the interest of 'getting it off my chest', let me go ahead and break it down point by point so that you can understand why I'm so upset_." She had continued with barely a pause to breathe, and that carefully-controlled composure had truly fractured. " _Let me start off by saying just how ridiculous it is that my grandfather- I'm sorry, father, that's another point I'll need to get to- held a grudge and the result was the end of the world in an alternate future dimension- also ridiculous but not something I'll touch further on- but also possibly this one as well. All because he really really really really wanted to kill some guy who crushed his fucked up mad scientist dreams decades ago_."

Cell felt himself beginning to tune out the very rant he had predicted. All things he had heard before, more or less. Though he couldn't deny that to hear it all again was downright nostalgic.

~Gero Mountain Lab~  
~In The Future~

This was the daughter Gero was so proud of? The one promised to take up Doctor Gero's work? The one charged with watching over him? Doctor Gero said- promised- that she would take care of him! Who was she to turn her back on this great purpose?!

She turned her back on her family legacy. Her focus was anywhere but where it needed to be- namely him. One of her first directives was to shut down the master computer's programmed genetic therapies and lessons. The life support remained, but it still felt like he had been set adrift, abandoned.

That didn't matter, part of him thought with bitter resolution. He would find a way. A way to get stronger, to get out of the tank, and fulfill his ultimate purpose.

There were many times during the days following Calliope's 'introduction' that the computer forced its artificial calm on Cell. Every time, it seemed, when he got too enraged, too stuck on this betrayal, another dose of sedative forced him to sleep. It was an irritating safety response, meant to keep his developing form from stressing itself to injury.

Weeks passed. Calliope remained.

As time went on she took up a habit of talking to herself. Whether it was about her current activities, or cursing the late Doctor Gero. It was possible she was simply thinking out loud. Her focus was limited to the androids, and how to stop them. They were built in with few fail-safes for events like this, apparently. Calliope seemed to know well enough not to try diplomatic resolutions with the siblings. Whatever feelings 17 and 18 had towards the late doctor that drove them to murder, likely carried over her as well. Instead, her focus was on their destruction, much to Cell's disdain.

It must have been over a series of months that she made her attempts. Days, if not weeks at a time she spent trying to understand the designs that were outside of her scholarly depth. She hardly slept, and the mental wear was becoming apparent. Occasionally Calliope would leave the lab, each marking an attempt to 'deal with' the androids, only to return in defeated silence. There were attempts made to detonate the bombs in the androids. Attempts at directly deactivating them as well.

Nothing worked. Cell delighted in her failure.

~Cell Games Arena~

" _-let me just take a moment to tell someone how ridiculous I think it is that I'm a clone! I am literally the result of illegal human cloning procedures. Just! What the hell!"_

It was about three minutes and twenty-eight seconds after Calliope insisted that she did not rant, that Cell recognized he might have made a mistake in encouraging her. He had barely been able to get a word in edgewise. Her spontaneous lecture was at times meandering but still managed to hold a strange organization.

" _But because just being cloned from someone wasn't enough, nooo, they had to toss in some experimental genetic therapies as well! Who the hell knows what was changed!_ " Because being born with genetics favoring intelligence and health was, apparently, such a burden, Cell thought wryly.

Eventually, he stopped trying to respond. Cell instead stood silently, with a slight frown, and occasionally rolled eyes at some of Calliope's comments. So far it had been primarily complaints aimed at Doctor Gero, but anything even remotely related to the family business was fair game.

" _Who even knows if I have some time-bomb brewing in my chromosomes that will kill me off eventually?!_ "

Perhaps, Cell thought mildly, it was a mistake to mock Calliope for being long-winded.

~Gero Mountain Lab~  
~In The Future~

There came a day, months after Calliope's arrival, that she went quiet, and unusually still.

Cell could still feel her there, in the lab. Her frenzied activities seemed to stop all at once. While this was odd, it was a bittersweet reprieve from her talking to herself. He found in time that his rage had calmed into something cold.

"Okay..." When Calliope's voice broke the silence, it was a surprise. Eventually, when she spoke she sounded exhausted. "Fine."

She had moved to stand before his tank again. When she spoke again it was with the same cold professionalism, but now with a sharp edge. "Fine. I hate having to revisit decisions like this, in this way. But I'm not stubborn enough to ignore when plans need to change. Now I'm not going to make any promises..."

Wait... What was this? It sounded like she was giving up.

"But I will do my damnedest to make sure you're ready to take on those two fish-eyed assholes."

She was, indeed, giving up. On her own means by the sound of it, anyway.

"Alright... let's get to it. Between me and the computer, we have our work cut out for us..." Calliope said with a renewed strength to her voice. "I've taken a preliminary look at your genes and, honestly, it's like you're held together with duct tape and zip ties... Hack job genetic engineering here.."

Calliope had exhausted any solution that fit comfortably into the confines of her narrow morals. Cell realized this with a sudden glee. She was desperate enough to abandon her strict ethics and willing to aid him.

Good. It was about time she saw reason.

~Cell Games Arena~

Don't destroy the drone. Do not break it. Don't shatter it into a million pieces even though it would be so easy. Cell had to remind himself several times that now was not the time. How weak would he seem if he couldn't stand up to a teenage girl's complaints?

" _Which brings me to_ _ **you**_." Calliope had said suddenly, and he couldn't help but perk up with the next subject on her ramble. If he was being honest with himself, this was really the only subject he had any vested interest in. While she was indeed being long-winded, at least she was being candid.

" _Do you think I want to do this?_ " Her tone had changed when she spoke now. Less accusing, less outraged, with a certain hint of distress leaking through. " _I don't. I really don't. If I had the option, I would have sent you a strongly-worded email._ "

Cell couldn't help but chuckle lightly to himself at the notion. He could just imagine the kind of message she could send if she had the option of distance. Some professional toned email that she would have been able to edit down to maintain the image of stoic composure.

" _Instead I'm flying small bug-shaped drone out to the sticks to have this conversation! Do you know how crazy I feel? Cell, I do not know how to put this more clearly, but you are the antithesis to everything I have worked for. Not only professionally, but personally as well. I don't know how you expect us to have anything close to an 'amicable relationship' when our interests are so diametrically opposed._ "

Then again, an email would not possibly include these honest assessments. Even if they were things he didn't want to hear.

" _I honestly don't know how you expect me to take the planned genocide of my species. By the sounds of it, you think I would be just, like, totally cool with it!_ " Her speech had started to slow. Finally, she had started to wear herself out. _"I'm not really sure what you want from me. I'm at least 60% sure that you're just messing with me at any given time. And stop looking at me like that_."

"Aren't you still driving, or piloting?" His face had fallen to a frown while listening to Calliope's rambling. Ideally not paying attention to the way he was staring at the tiny camera in the drone.

 _"I'm multitasking._ "

"Fair enough." Trying to recover a more neutral expression, Cell waited for several moments. When she did not pick up where she left off in her ramble of complaints he felt somewhat relieved. "I take it you're done with your lecture then?"

".. _. I am._ " Calliope replied quietly after a few moments. When she spoke again, it sounded like she had recovered some of her more professional manners. ".. _. I'm sorry for yelling_." Cell managed to hide his surprise while gazing at the drone. He certainly wasn't expecting that, he realized. " _This entire situation has been incredibly stressful, and admittedly, you do have the lion's share of the blame at this point. But that is no reason for me to lose my composure_."

"Apology accepted." He said this and had to force a winning smile, just in case she was still watching the drone. "Do you feel better now?"

" _Not particularly._ "

"Oh come now Calliope, it's just you and me here. I'm sure that was quite cathartic for you."

" _It's really more embarrassing than cathartic._ " She sighed then. Any sign that she had been outraged before had faded. After a moment she continued. "... _Yeah... I'm gonna go._ "

"What makes you think I'm 'messing with you'?" Cell asked suddenly, and the drone ceased the small movement to turn about. The wings continued to flutter as it hovered, betraying no reaction at first.

" _What, seriously?_ " Calliope ask this is in a flat way, possibly caught off-guard. She continued after a few moments of Cell maintaining a hard stare and silence. "... _I'd have to say its a combination of things. Mostly who you are as a person._ "

"And what exactly do you think I'm messing with you about?"

" _Well, I'm almost certain you're trying to drive me to the point of having a nervous breakdown, for one. Not sure if I got to that earlier. I'm also just waiting to see when you do actually end up killing me_." With this, she had spoken with a dry chuckle to the words, as if there was some morbid joke in there.

"Hm, and I actually remember giving certain assurances that I don't intend to do you any harm." Though he would never admit it, this vein of conversation was beginning to wear on Cells nerves. He mused aloud, perhaps harsher than intended. "However you probably don't believe that. Or maybe the work stress is finally too much and you've developed some kind of death wish."

" _No, not quite. I genuinely hope you don't end up killing me, and you may very well have no intention of that either._ " Calliope sounded completely calmed down from her earlier fevered rant. " _But I think I know better than to hold our family to any kind of promise._ "

Cell's severe frown softened when he realized what she meant. It always leads back to Doctor Gero with her. Not that it could be helped. The disruption to her professional life aside, she was likely still reeling from what must have seemed to be a mountain of broken trust.

"It doesn't have to be like that between us, you know."

"..." For some stretched second Calliope didn't reply. " _Well, I think its a bit late for that now._ "

"... And I suppose there's nothing I can say to change your mind?"

" _No, probably not_."

"Well, fine then." There would be time later. The best way to prove this particular point would be to simply avoid killing her.

" _Fine?_ " She asked dubiously. The moment later she was firmer. " _Fine._ "

"I'll see you in a few days, Calliope." Cell said this with a certain finality, an end to their conversation.

"... _Right._ " She said eventually as if she was considering arguing the point further. Instead, the line went silent as either the mic muted or she disconnected the call. The drone turned itself around again and went fluttering away.

He waited until the drone was far enough away when the tiny wings could no longer be heard. Closing his eyes again, Cell settled into the silence.


	13. The Truth

Chapter 12: The Truth

* * *

~Minnows BioSolutions Auxiliary Lab~

'I could still run', some small, panicked, dumb voice reasoned in the back of Calliope's mind.

Her colleague was older, slower, and wouldn't be able to catch her if she bolted for the door now.

There was a bug-out bag prepared in the trunk of her personal airship, but she would still need to pick up a rifle for hunting game.

If there was ever a time to run away from civilization and live in the woods, it was now.

Once things panned out after Cell's tournament, provided he was defeated, she could relocate. Start a new life on a far-off continent. She would have to cut and dye her hair though, perhaps even be willing to undergo cosmetic surgery. Nash or Jay might have some knowledge of making fake identifications. Or, failing that, where to obtain convincing fakes. They had had plans to fake a nuclear meltdown. Piecing together a new identity would be within their wheelhouse. It was doable. Her father had taught her to be ready to bail, 'in case his past caught up with her'. She could do it.

'Don't be stupid', Calliope tried to calm herself.

While her thoughts raced a mile a minute she managed to keep her composure. For just a moment, sitting across the desk from Belfast in his office, she tried to pretend that it was a normal meeting. One where they would discuss upcoming projects, budgets, procedures. With one knee crossed over the other and her hands in her lap, she forced a polite, tight-lipped smile. Internally she braced herself, unsure what to expect from Belfast at that moment, with that odd look he had. It wasn't quite the red-faced look of ire he usually had when something upset the work their lab. He looked tired and cautious.

"Merriweather." Belfast started shortly after she settled across from him. He looked older somehow, the lines on his face deeper from what had been bewildering and stressful days lately. His eyes held the look of a man that longed for the days of business as usual. Taking a deep breath he spoke in his familiar stern tones. "You know, I'm not even sure I want to ask, and I am almost positive you're going to have some kind of a smart ass, bullshit excuse ready. But you wouldn't happen to have any idea why this Cell character wanted to meet with you... Would you?"

How much did Belfast know again? He had seen Cell come to the lab, heard a portion of their conversation. He certainly noticed the small bug-shaped drone that she had yelled from. It was a shame she hadn't paid attention to whatever had been said before she was paying attention to the drone watching the office. Crap. There was the vague feeling that she was walking into a trap. What did he know?

"That's... hard to say." She said after a moment, not wanting to wait too long to respond. Perhaps if she had spent more time thinking about that on the way over and less time yelling at Cell she would have had something prepared. But she was certain now why Belfast wanted to talk in person, and so promptly. This must be what it felt like to be called to the principles office for school children.

"Mmhmm." Nodding as if understanding, for a moment it seemed like Belfast would take that simple answer and leave it. "You know Cell actually said something earlier that I'm kind of curious about. He said he wanted to 'continue your conversation' with you." Oh god damn it. "As in you and him had already been in contact."

'That big-mouthed, attention-whoring, _son of a bitch._ ' The thought crossed her mind as Calliope felt her face fall from politely neutral to tight and severe.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about this entire situation. The past few days have been goddamn ridiculous, and sometimes I catch myself wondering if this is all some fucked up fever dream. But by the way you two were talking in the lab earlier it sounded like you were already well acquainted. Not exactly in a friendly way, but with you that's no surprise." The senior researcher continued. Belfast sat up straighter in his seat and took on a commanding tone. "Now, I can appreciate that you are a very private person. I get that. But this is a serious situation, Calliope. We just had a dangerous, pompous, self-proclaimed mass murderer walk into this lab, and if I'm not mistaken, threaten our staff." He took just a moment to lean with his elbows on his desk, and his voice dropped to something more severe. "This is a guy forced his way onto international television, monologued like a comic book supervillain, and then blew up a fucking mountain. Hell, for all we know he _is_ a comic book supervillain. This is not the kind of thing where you can keep people out of the goddamned loop because you think you have everything handled."

Calliope couldn't bring herself to reply immediately. She had opened her mouth once, then twice, hoping that something believable would come out. Instead each time she could manage barely a word and a frustrated huff. Shifting in the chair, she tried to find a more comfortable position. Why were all the chairs in the auxiliary lab so damn uncomfortable? With their budget, they should have sprung for better cushions. For a moment Calliope wasn't able to get more than a few words out, "Well... The thing is..."

"Calliope. Cut the shit." Belfast said coldly when she wasn't able to produce a full sentence. "What the hell is going on?"

"... Well... It's... _Complicated_." She said stiffly and found herself wincing. She couldn't very well keep lying and skirting around what she knew forever. But in this case, what was she suppose to tell him?

'Oh yeah, well Cell's actually from a future, technically alternate-dimension. Seems like he imprinted on a future, technically alternate-dimension version of me. Like ducklings do! Like an oversized, murderous duckling. Yes, I know it doesn't make sense. Yes, the whole thing is ridiculous.' Calliope mused to herself an irreverent, hypothetical explanation. 'Now that he's here he wants to be my super best friend or something. If I had it my way I would pack it up and go live in the wilderness.'

That would make her sound like a crazy person. Then again, all things considered, and the direction of this conversation, Belfast probably already thought she was some degree of crazy. Again she internally cursed every decision in her life that had lead to this situation.

Botanists probably didn't have this issue.

"I'm sure it is." Belfast kept his gaze on her. "Why don't you try to explain." This was not a suggestion.

Across the desk, Belfast continued eyeing Calliope as the silence stretched on. He was trying to give her more than enough opportunity to continue on her own. After a minute his eyebrows rose up, and he made a show of placing his hands on the desk, fingers entwined.

'Fuck it.' The reckless, tired, majority of her mind thought suddenly. He already knew something was up.

"How much time do you have?" She asked eventually.

"As much as needed."

"Okay... Okay. Yeah. Fine. Okay." Calliope nodded, mostly to herself. She pulled her chair closer to the desk and leaned in on an elbow. "First off, I'd like to remind you that I've never shown any tendencies towards paranoid delusions, schizoaffective disorders, manic episodes, or bipolar disorders. Nothing that would cause me to have delusions or hallucinations of any variety. Psychologically speaking, I am sound of mind. Second, and this is very important, none of this is technically _my fault._ "

"... Uh-huh..." Belfast sounded somewhat skeptical when he said this. The same way he might answer Jay in a discussion about subterranean crab people. "... Now, you are aware that you already sound a bit crazy when you start an explanation like that."

"Yeah, I know. Trust me. It is going to get worse." Speaking matter-of-factually, Calliope tried to gauge the other researcher's reaction so far. Belfast wasn't going to be as easy-going about this as, say, her IT staff was. She spoke with a suddenly somber tone. "Aiden, I'm going to do something that I have tried to avoid having to do my entire academic and professional life... I'm going to tell you the truth."

Across the table, Belfast maintained his gaze, but there was a small twitch to his eyebrows. For a single moment, Calliope reconsidered telling him. But then again, he did ask, and at least for now he was willing to listen. As much as she didn't want to admit to Cell being right, perhaps it would be easiest to explain _some_ of the truth. Not all of it. Just enough.

She would have been painted into this corner anyway, be it now or in the future, she reasoned.

"How much do you know about the Red Ribbon Army?" Calliope asked, and smiled briefly to herself when she realized there was no way she was getting out of this conversation without sounding crazy.

This conversation was not happening, she convinced herself, because Cell presented it as 'a good idea'.

~Capsule Corp Headquarters~

 _'Department Heads of Minnows BioSolutions,_

 _I'm calling for a meeting tomorrow at 10:00 am at the Minnows BioSolutions Emergency Auxiliary site in Central City. This meeting is concerning the mental health and ethical standing of our board's current President and senior researcher, Calliope Merriweather._

 _As a heads up, we're possibly going to need to have to start an investigation with our Ethics Committee, as well as find a psychologist for a psychiatric evaluation (seems our usual shrink got himself killed during the evacuations of Nicky Town, and is thus unavailable.)_

 _I swear to the god you people better show up. You're not excused from your professional duties just because some crazy bullshit is going on. Do not message me back asking for the minutes of the meeting. I will explain everything when you get here. In person._

 _Jay, if you're not able to make it you better have a doctor's note for your 'food poisoning'._

 _Karlia, I know you're_

 _at your beach house, get your ass back to Central City. Try to be functionally sober when you get here._

 _Moto, Barb, keep up the good work. Once again, HR and Accounting are the only departments doing what they're supposed to do._

 _Aiden Belfast  
Senior Researcher  
Minnows BioSolutions'_

"Oh... Well shit." Jay couldn't stop himself from saying, quite shocked at the email he had just received. Did Calliope say something? Did _Cell_ say something? What the Hell had happened at the auxiliary lab?

There had been an email from Calliope the previous day, distributed to the entire email list of staff, urging them not to worry and to not comment to the press or social media about their 'visitor'. Another was a reminder from the Minnows BioSolutions legal department about the nondisclosure agreements employees had signed. Everyone from IT, aside from Nash, had been sending him emails asking about cashing in their vacation days and taking leave early.

Belfast's email had arrived while Jay had been catching up on the missed messages and alerts. While his and the interns' focus had been on helping to repair Android 16, they had paid enough attention to the breaking news stories about Cell showing up on the auxiliary lab's front door.

Nothing was destroyed, and no one was killed, but it did seem to catalyze an absolute shit storm at the lab. Everyone from administration down to junior researchers and even secretarial staff were sending emails to department heads. What the hell had Calliope done to warrant a psychiatric evaluation? Jay could think of several things over the past days that might make someone question her mental health. But Belfast shouldn't have known anything particularly incriminating. Not to the point of having ammunition for an internal investigation.

"Is everything alright, Jay?" It was a bit of a surprise when 16 asked this from his perch on an examination table, out of the relative silence of the lab. With the combined efforts, it took significantly less time to complete the needed repairs. Any damaged wiring and circuitry had been replaced, the remnants of a bug-shaped drone cleaned out, and his outer cranial structure repaired.

"Well... It's not great..." Jay said after a moment, noticing that everyone had been looking at him. One of the Minnows BioSolutions interns had been sanding down 16's repaired head, Bulma was nearby rerunning an internal analysis on their collective work, with Doctor Brief hovering over her shoulder as he lit another cigarette. Jay shrugged and looked through other messages he had received recently. "After yesterday's scare, I've been getting a lot of emails from people freaking out about Cell just _showing up_."

"Yeah, that must have been pretty scary," Bulma asked, in a surprisingly casual way, as she turned back to the diagnostics for 16's internal systems. Jay was continuously surprised she was so good at dealing with the potential end-of-the-world. "Any idea why Cell showed up at the lab in Central City? The news reports weren't very clear."

"I tried to ask Calliope what happened..." Starting carefully, Jay thought for a moment of how to quote his friend and employer. The lab hadn't released an official statement about the incident to the press, and the staff collectively seemed to be honoring the request against releasing information. He grumbled a bit to himself, scratching his head. "She just said that Cell was being 'an attention-seeking, omnicidal twat'?"

"HAH! That's one way to put it." Doctor Brief laughed aloud, "With that over-the-top announcement, having a tournament named after himself. Twat certainly fits."

"Jay, is Doctor Merriweather alright?" 16 asked simply in his usual monotone but did not otherwise move. The intern at his side, on top of a step ladder, was still working to smooth the surface of the previous-damaged head. Their work had turned out quite good, it was difficult to tell that it once had a sizable hole in it.

"Ah, well when I talked to her yesterday she said she was fine..." Jay went quiet in thought for a moment. "... Then again that's her default answer." Everything considered, he realized he probably should have been checking in with Calliope more often. He crumbled under the neutral side-eyed stare 16 gave before speaking quickly, "Y'know what, I'll give her a call. Just to check up. I'm sure she's okay."

" _Jay!_ " Calliope's voice came over loudly when the call connected.

"Heeey Cal! I just wanted to check up-" Trying to sound casual, Jay found himself cut off before he could get too far.

" _Jay! I've been meaning to give you a call you!_ " She continued in the next breath, sounding anything but calm. " _Did Belfast message you? He's supposed to be putting everyone on administrative leave or getting a new emergency auxiliary site set up. It is, just, it's super important. Did you get called, or an email, anything?_ "

This sounded more akin to over-caffeinated and under-slept Calliope.

"Ah, well..." For a moment he hesitated, before trying to gently explain. "Belfast sent an email to the department heads..."

" _Uh-huh?_ " Calliope said with a certain insistence when Jay didn't immediately continue.

"Well, that's actually something I wanted to talk to you about..." Jay winced, and looked between the gathered scientists and technicians in the room, not necessarily wanting to have this conversation so out in the open.

"Doctor Merriweather!" Android 16 spoke up with some urgency, as the conversation thus far had not satisfied him. "I heard that Cell showed up at your lab. Are you alright?"

" _I- Wh- 16 is that you?_ " Calliope stumbled for a moment but didn't wait for an answer to confirm. " _Am... Am I on speaker phone? Jay?_ "

"Yeah, yeah you are." Jay cut in briefly, and at first, was answered with a tired sigh from the other end of the line.

". _.. Oh come on, we talked about this at the last staff meeting.._." Over the line she muttered, mostly to herself, but spoke up again to address the concerned android. " _16, I'm fine. I wasn't even at the lab when Cell showed up. I was in Nicky Town._ " Trying to recover from the derailment, Calliope continued with her inquiry, " _Jay, please tell me that everyone has been put on leave, or anything similar. Belfast is getting out people out of the labs, right?_ "

"Well... No..." While he was reluctant to answer, Jay was quick to continue before Calliope could start again. "Cal, we need to talk."

"Doctor Merriweather!" 16 cut in once again, "Nicky Town is still a declared disaster zone, it would be safer for you to be at the other location with your employees, where emergency services are able to respond should a situation arise."

" _16, buddy,_ " Now Calliope sounded tired again, " _I am not leaving my lab... I mean, you remember what I told you about the evacuation, right? It was a fake meltdown. I'm in no immediate danger. Right now, what I need for you to do is to let the nice tech-nerds fix you. Can you do that for me?_ "

"Actually!" This time Doctor Brief spoke up, without removing the cigarette between his lips. Like his daughter, he had maintained a surprisingly chipper attitude in the face of a possible Doomsday. He smiled as he looked between Jay, the HoloCat's phone icon, and Android 16. "We've completed the bulk of the repair work! Your interns are cleaning up the cosmetic imperfections, and we're just rerunning the diagnostics to make sure 16's internal functions are up to snuff."

" _Wow, okay, that didn't take long._ " Calliope spoke quickly, though mostly to herself again.

Picking up immediately, 16 had turned his head towards Jay, and more specifically, the call, "Doctor Merriweather, if you will not return to a safer location, it would be best if I were there with you."

" _16, I don't need a babysitter-_ " Calliope had started with a measure of annoyance, only to be cut off again.

"It is unwise to remain by yourself." 16 insisted further, in his ever-calm voice.

" _Okay, well, if its looters you're worried about, I have plenty of guns here_."

"I am more concerned that Cell will return to your lab and harm you."

" _Well, the worst Cell will do to me is just talk at me with his stupid face._ " Calliope said this in a surprisingly casual way. Jay felt as if he must have missed much being out of touch for such a short amount of time. " _If he was interested in doing anything more than causing me massive amounts of stress he would have already._ "

"Hey, Cal, it might actually be a good idea to have 16 there with you," Jay spoke up finally, able to interrupt the discussion. He shared a look with 16, and could only shrug with his suggestion. "Not in a babysitter capacity, just as a... Someone who's got your back?"

" _...That's what the guns are for, Jay_." She said this as if it should be obvious. Without waiting for a counter-argument, Calliope continued to try and defend her self-instituted solitude, " _Look, 16, I appreciate the concern. I really do. But let's be realistic about this. If, or when, Cell comes back to bother me, and you're here, I'm pretty sure you won't make it out alive... functional? I don't want to get you... killed... destroyed?_ " Her voice lost some of its edges as she muttered to herself over the proper terminology to use, considering 16 was, after all, an android. It was odd to hear Calliope sound so out of sorts.

"I am not concerned with my safety, Doctor Merriweather." 16 was stern in holding his ground in this matter.

" _... Okay, fine. How about this..._ " Calliope relented, with another sigh. " _I'm going to be out of the lab today. Come meet me in Ginger Town, and we can talk_."

"I will be in Ginger Town as soon as I am able." 16 nodded in agreement and slid his gaze to the intern that was still at his side. The mohawk-sporting intern didn't seem to notice, as engrossed as he was in the now-repaired surface of 16's head, alternating between sanding and buffing a particular

two square inch area. "Intern Rory, are you almost done?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah!" Rory the intern, who had been staring intensely at his remaining repair work, lit up with a cheerful grin. "I'm just making sure the surface is nice and smooth. Diagnostics lookin' good Missus B?"

"Yep, everything is looking good here!" Bulma called from behind the computer, throwing a thumbs up and a smile.

"What- Wait. Why the hell are you going to Ginger Town?" Jay cut in again. As far as any of them knew, there was nothing left in Ginger Town but rubble and bodyless clothing.

" _Its... Ah... Personal stuff. Personal business._ " Clearing her throat, Calliope's mind seemed to go right back to her original point. " _Jay are you going to be heading back to the aux lab?_ "

"Yeah, that was the plan." Nodding to himself, Jay's thoughts returned to the email he had received from Belfast earlier. He turned himself about in his seat and spoke quietly on the call. This wasn't a subject he was eager to share with the present interns. If he had the choice this would have been sharing this information under the strictest confidence. "Calliope, we really need to talk. Belfast-"

"- _Because we need to get everyone out of the lab!_ " Calliope cut in, ignoring his initial plea, but she sounded urgent in her request. She had lowered her voice with Jay to a near-whisper. " _You and Nash wouldn't happen to have any more tricks up your sleeve for evacuating people, would you? At this point, I don't care how crazy and off-the-wall it is_."

"Calliope!" This time Jay was frustrated enough to raise his voice, so much so that he heard the rest of the conversation in the lab drop off. He winced to himself and glanced back to see that, of course, everyone was looking at him with various degrees of curiosity and concern. Turning back around, he continued with a hurried whisper. "What the hell did you say to Belfast?" he paused for a moment, waiting for some kind of reply. When none came, he took a breath and continued. "... I think he's trying to get you suspended, or worse, and he wants you to undergo a psych eval. There was even mention of an _investigation_ by the _Ethics Committee_..." He was sure that that would have gotten some kind of reaction. "Did you say something to him that might come off as, y'know, a bit cuckoo-crazy-pants?"

After the words left his mouth Jay felt himself cringe, waiting for the blowback. He could have found a better way to say that. But, he reminded himself, sometimes it was better to rip off the band-aid and deal with it. The sooner Calliope knew her career was in jeopardy, the sooner she could deal with it.

"... _Oh_..." Was the simple, stunned reply, at first. Calliope seemed derailed from her original demanding track. It was a moment before she spoke again, and it was with a distinct bitterness. " _You know, I want to be surprised. I really do._ "

"Cal. What did you say to Belfast?" Jay tried to ask this carefully, neutrally, without assigning blame. A good portion of the IT department could be implicated in the investigation by the Ethics Committee, too, he realized at once.

" _Well_..." She sounded calm now, but there was still an edge in her voice as she explained. " _Last night I took a trip back to the aux lab, and had a meeting with Belfast._.."

"Yeah...?"

" _And Belfast wanted to know why Cell showed up at our lab, and why he was looking for me, and_..."

"Mmhmm...?" By this time Jay had already slid off his seat, nodding as he tried to get the story out of his boss. He had paced a few steps one way, and then made a beeline out of the lab to stand in the hall when his legs felt too restless to stop.

" _And, well, I sort of told him the truth._ " Calliope said this so steadily, so calmly, that Jay had to take a moment to process.

"The-ah- the _truth_?" Jay's mind did a quick mental inventory of the things him, his team, and his boss had done in the last handful of days. Aside from the work-avoidance, misleading other department heads, there were also the more illegal activities his team had been working on. How did he let himself get so caught up in this? "Cal, what _exactly_ did you tell Belfast? _Please_ tell me you didn't tell him anything about the fake meltdown."

" _Oh calm down Jay, of course, I didn't mention the 'meltdown'. Or IT's involvement. As far as I know, he thinks you and the interns are out with food poisoning, or just dicking off and going to an amusement park or something, and that Nash is being as weird as usual. I told him just enough that it kind of makes sense that Cell would just show up and demand to talk to me._ " Now it felt like Calliope was the one trying to talk Jay down from his upset. She continued, not necessarily in a soothing way, but in her usual even, professional way. " _I told him about Gero, the androids, the future, all that stuff. Didn't mention anything about the clones... The rest of it sounded crazy enough... But don't worry, Jay, you and the rest of IT shouldn't be implicated in any of this nonsense._ "

"Okay... Okay..." Jay was able to get a hold of himself and wrangled the anxiety about their recent activities. It had all seemed like such cool badassery at the time. He was quiet for just a short time before asking, remembering Calliope's earlier urgency, "Say, what were you going on about before? Why do we need to get everyone out of the aux lab?"

" _Oh, right. Well, Cell wants me and him to be, I don't know, super BFFs or something, and if I don't play along he's going to kill everyone in the lab_." She said this quickly, clearly annoyed again. " _And frankly, I'm not going to sit by and let him use my staff as some kind of collateral_!"

"... Wasn't he sorta-kinda planning on killing everyone anyway?"

" _That's what it sounds like_." Calliope grumbled this before, going on with a sarcastic flare. " _But apparently he's trying to make a point, so he's targeting Minnows staff in the short-term... Or, hey, maybe he genuinely thinks this is how you make friends._ "

"I mean as I said, dude, is crazy."

" _Yet I'm the one that needs a psych eval._ "

"I'll see if I can talk to Belfast down from this whole investigation thing. We should make it back to Central in a couple of hours."

" _And could you see about..._ "

"Getting everyone out of the lab so we don't get killed by your new best friend, I gotcha."

" _Thanks... I'll try to check in later when I get back to Nicky Town_."

"Alright, be careful Cal." Not that she would necessarily take his advice. With the call ended, Jay leaned against the nearby wall and tried to digest the conversation. He knew his department would leave if it came down to it. But everyone else? They would need to hear the order from either their own department heads or Belfast- especially when Calliope could potentially be out of the picture. Which brought up another question; What the hell was she going to be getting up to in Ginger Town?

"Hey, Jay?" The timid call came from one of the other interns, Marky, which drew Jay's attention back to the door to the lab they had been working in.

All three interns stared at him expectantly, and Rory picked up the question once they had their supervisor's attention. "So Doctor Merriweather was talking about putting everyone on leave or something- Does that include us? Cause we were wondering what was going to happen to our internships since it may or may not be the end of the world?"

"... That..." Jay found himself looking between the interns, and gave a shrug and a noncommittal gesture. "Is a great question, guys."

~ (What's Left of) Ginger Town~

Even though she had been keeping up with the news, Calliope hadn't expected Ginger Town to be in such a shape as she found it. Buildings were destroyed, rubble was everywhere, there were too many clothes with not a body to be found. Near as she could tell she was the only person in the once-popular suburb. The sight looked like it would belong to a war-torn country in the middle of a civil war, without the military presence, of course.

This was _Ginger Town_. It was a nice, unassuming suburb. Nothing of note happened here, up until its population was killed.

"Hey HoloCat, could you call 16 and let him know where we are?" Calliope spoke softly, though there was no need. She couldn't help but feel spooked by the absolute quiet and stillness of the area. Aside from the distinct lack of other people, there were hardly any natural sounds of birds or animals to be heard. When she had prepared for the trip there was a fear of looters in the area, and she had brought her rifle loaded with tranquilizers, but it seemed an unnecessary precaution now.

As most of the area was mostly covered in rubble and buildings in various states of collapse, the only place clear enough land was a local park. It was here Calliope waited for 16 to arrive, sat on a swing while reviewing her emails. She had to do something to try and avoid the glaring destruction she was surrounded by. For the moment she re-read the message sent from Violet, who had come through with Doctor Spring's last known location; not far off from where she landed, on the outskirts of Ginger Town. It would be lucky if he made it out alive between Cell's feeding frenzy and the fighting that took place here.

"HoloCat... Are you _sure_ this email came from Violet Winters?" She eventually asked, with a sense of suspicion. The text was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, simple things that her fake-aunt would usually never let slip. It gave her the contact information for Doctor Spring, as well as an invitation to visit her in her lab, of course, that they needed to catch up.

"Yes, Doctor!" HoloCat chirped, the minimized avatar peaking around the email to blink at her. "Is something wrong?"

"No... Just..." Calliope sighed. It wasn't a bad idea to visit Violet. It would get her away from the lab in Nicky Town, and it had been a while since she had seen her self-proclaimed aunt. She couldn't help but have a vague sense of concern- the same she had before trying to visit her father when she assumed incorrectly that he was her grandfather. Violet worked with infectious diseases. Her fake-aunt hadn't been looking well the last time they spoke. Had there been some kind of outbreak? It would be insane for Violet to invite her if that was the case, especially without alerting her to the danger. "... There hasn't been any kind news about outbreaks of any diseases within 100 miles, has there?"

"No Doctor, there hasn't!" HoloCat stayed smiling, and Calliope looked between it, and the email again. "I can set up an alert for you if there is!"

"That'd be great." Calliope couldn't bring herself to share the enthusiasm of the digital assistant. Mentally she planned a visit with her aunt, thinking of any necessary supplies to bring along. There was a chance Violet could have the flu. That wouldn't warrant any kind of real worry. Violet would be over the illness in a matter of days, and Calliope herself was young and well enough that her health wasn't at great risk.

She would need to call ahead, and inquire what _exactly_ was going on.

Shaking herself out of the paranoid line of thinking, Calliope tried to calm herself. Her fake-aunt was a responsible person and scientist. Violet had always held safety protocols first and foremost as the most important aspects of her lab. There was no need to worry, and no need to project the same suspicion she had for her father. She had been deep enough in thought that she almost didn't notice android 16 descending on his approach.

"Doctor Merriweather!" 16 greeted as he landed, with a surprising amount of enthusiasm in his usual monotones. "It is good to see you again."

"Hey, 16. Good to see you t-"

"Hi, Mister 16!" HoloCat's avatar popped up and half-screamed in excitement before Calliope could barely get her greeting out of her mouth.

"Hello, HoloCat. It is good to see you too." 16 said after a moment of looking her over. She internally cringed, wondering how bad she looked today. "...Doctor Merriweather, you look tired."

The previous night had been filled with traveling to- and then back from- the auxiliary lab, and she had planned on getting some sleep upon her return. Unfortunately, her mind never settled enough to rest- there was too much personal and professional embarrassment about the recent days for Calliope. The conversation with Cell had been one thing, and she still cringed to think on how she had lost her cool. Even if she had been baited into 'airing her frustrations' by someone who knew exactly what buttons oh hers to press.

Her meeting in the Central City auxiliary lab had not gone any better. After a lengthy explanation, where Calliope did her best to lay out the facts as plainly as she could, Belfast had not said much. 'They would talk further about the matter'. She should have guessed, at that moment, that a psychiatric evaluation was in her future.

"Yeah, I haven't been sleeping very well lately." Calliope smiled a bit sheepishly. It would have been more accurate to say that she hadn't slept at all the previous night. "Just... a lot of stress... with everything going on."

"Hmm.." Nodding, 16 maintained his gaze on her for another moment, before asking suddenly, "What kind of personal business did you have here?"

"Huh?" Calliope blinked, and then remembered her previous conversation with Jay. "Oh, right, yeah. I'm trying to track down Doctor Spring." She was prepared for further questions from the android, but when he simply kept staring at her, she went on with an explanation. "Um. The doctor that Gero hired Spring to... Pretty much genetically engineer me and some other... clones..." It felt awkward talking with someone that didn't respond with many nonverbal cues of understanding. Calliope shrugged and tried a more casual tone. She felt more awkward than anything. "So, since I'm off work, possibly indefinitely, I figured I would do some more digging in my family tree. Maybe try to track down my mom, see if she's actually alive. Maybe the other clones, since technically they'd be like my _sisters_? I... I don't know. It just seems like something I should do..."

"Hmm.." 16 nodded once after her explanation. He looked up and scanned their surroundings, observing the destructed city, his expression never changed. "I do not think you will find Doctor Spring here. It appears that everyone is dead."

"... Yeah. Yeah, I know. Now that I'm here I'm starting to think that too..." When she thought about it, Calliope did feel ridiculous about having flown all the way out there, and even more so even expecting to find anyone. She drew in a deep breath and sighed. This felt like another failure. The latest in a series of wasted efforts.

One thing was certain, she didn't fly out to stand in the park of a decimated city and do nothing. They were already here. The least she could do is try.

"Well, come on," Calliope said while pushing herself out of the swing seat. She stepped around 16 and started walking toward what was left of the street. "Spring is supposed to have a house down this way. If he left behind any documentation, it might have survived."

With the area having suffered as much damage as it did the roadway was no longer an easy way to traverse. The dust-covered grass of the park gave way to the cracked, occasionally rubble-strewn road. Where once Calliope might have been able to walk down the sidewalk with ease, she was now carefully hiking towards their destination. The neighborhood wasn't as bad off as some of the other areas of Ginger Town; while many of the homes were outright destroyed, there was a fair number that were in various levels of ruin.

There were cars parked on the side of the road, some in their respective driveways and covered in rubble.

"Doctor Merriweather..." 16 started abruptly, after some time of traversing the road. He had followed after her without a word until that point.

"You know, you can just call me Calliope." Calliope interrupted while consulting with the map on HoloCat's screen. She glanced between the marked location, up to the ruined homes they were surrounded by. Frowning as she had been for hours now, and she muttered to herself. "It should be on _this_ side of the street. Would be nice if we had house numbers to go off of..."

"Calliope. Why do you insist on staying at your lab in Nicky Town?" 16 asked, and by that time had stopped where he stood, watching her.

Calliope went another step before she turned, and tried to get her thoughts around the question. She looked back to 16, back to the ghost town they stood in, and again to the android. With her hands on her hips now, she sighed. "What?... Because." The longer she looked at 16, the more ridiculous she felt trying to defend the point. She had been expecting the android to bring this topic up, but still felt unprepared. "... Its... It's _my_ lab. I'm not going to just leave it!"

"The rest of your staff has left the Nicky Town area." 16 pointed out calmly, leaving Calliope to take a deep breath so she could respond in kind. The android was not trying to annoy her. His intentions were innocent enough.

"Yeah, because my IT staff faked a nuclear meltdown. Which ostensibly saved their lives from being eaten by Cell." Calliope shrugged and rubbed the back of her neck. 16 was watching her silently, and she continued without prompting. "Besides... My presence there would just put them in danger." Physical as well as emotional, she thought, with how prone some of them were to trauma.

At this point, it simply didn't feel right to go back to the lab with her staff. She couldn't quite put it into words, however. The longer 16 stared at her, seemingly waiting for an answer, the more it frustrated her.

"I just... I don't belong with them anymore." Calliope went on to explain. "They're good, law-abiding people. They didn't do anything to deserve this craziness. And that extends to you too, 16. I don't want to put your safety at risk if it's unnecessary."

"You haven't done anything to deserve the upset in your life either, Calliope." 16 said this in his usual gentle, monotone, but it sounded completely sincere.

"... You're _goddamn_ right I haven't." She said bitterly, before turning away to continue towards Doctor Spring's residence. They must have been just a few houses down from it now, according to HoloCat's map. Calliope hopped over a chunk of rubble that looked like it made up an exterior wall of a building, towards their indicated destination. She called over her shoulder, hoping to wrap up this particular discussion, "And I know where you're going with this 16, but I'm pretty sure Cell isn't going to kill me. He hasn't any other time, and having you at my lab when he shows up again would probably just end with you getting killed."

The wind kicked up a degree, enough to flutter a stray bit of clothing nearby.

"You can not be certain that he won't harm you."

"In the long run, no, probably not. In the short-term at least he has actually insisted, on multiple occasions, that he's not interested in killing me. Probably some kind of leftover sentimentality for future-me babysitting him..." She trailed off as she stopped short in the middle of the street, looking towards a mostly-intact home. The front door stood, the small front lawn scattered with small rubble.

HoloCat's map indicated that this was the residence of Doctor Spring, with a blinking icon on the map zoomed into their location. Turning back to 16, who had continued following her, Calliope eventually spoke up again. "How about this 16. Minnows Farm isn't too far from the lab, and the vets that were supposed to be taking care of the goats bailed after the fake meltdown. If you want, you can stay there. I can set up an alert on HoloCat so that if something happens, you'll be notified... Plus, the goats would probably appreciate the company."

16 didn't immediately reply, and his neutral expression didn't betray any deep thoughts he might be processing. After perhaps a minute he did nod. "Okay. I can accept this." Looking at the wreckage that remained of the home, 16 went on to ask plainly. "This is Doctor Spring's residence?"

"If the information Violet gave me is right, then yes." Calliope nodded and began approaching the front door. "He wasn't answering his phone or email, which... considering the state of Ginger Town, really isn't that surprising."

The house hadn't been as damaged as other buildings in the city, and similarly to the other buildings on this side of the neighborhood still had most of the structure intact. A northern wall and parts of the roof were collapsed, but otherwise, the house stood firm. The two stood at the front door, Calliope hesitating before finally reaching up to give a series of hard knocks.

"... I do not think Doctor Spring will answer." 16 said plainly, with a quick glance down to Calliope.

"Yeah, I know." She muttered not entirely to herself and didn't make an immediate move further. "It just... Feels wrong to barge into someone's home, even if they're dead and the home is abandoned..." another moment passed, with no response from what was left of the house, Calliope sighed and tried the door. Surprised to find it unlocked, and no resistance when she pushed into the residence, she tentatively poked her head inside.

The front hall, where the ceiling was intact, was dark without any lights. Beyond the home was dimly lit by the sun filtering through where parts of the roof had collapsed. They entered the home, which was more silent than outside, without the wind. Calliope stepped carefully over and around the rubble that used to be the roof and stood in what must have been the living room. One of the walls to the east had collapsed in on itself, but the home appeared intact otherwise.

There was a bookshelf along the wall, with various knick-knacks set on it along the top, the remaining shelves filled with textbooks. Nearby the wall had many framed photographs. Under the collapsed roof part of a couch poked out. While 16 stayed near the entrance, Calliope made a slow search of what she was able to access. Living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom; there was nothing that looked like it might be research notes or documents. There were no files, no paperwork of any kind. No office of any kind existed in the house.

There also wasn't any sight of stray clothing with a tale-tell hole anywhere that she could see. If Cell had killed Doctor Spring in his previous form, it hadn't been here.

"I'm not sure if we're going to find anything here..." Calliope said, disheartened by how little the search had turned up thus far. With the day wearing on, and how little she had been sleeping, her heart wasn't entirely in the search. The idea of going back to Nicky Town, to her couch in her office, and crawling under a light blanket was growing to be a more attractive plan.

She returned to the living room, stepping over the collapsed ceiling and roof debris to where 16 stood, near one of the intact walls. The android hadn't appeared to have moved much from when they had entered the home, and he was intently staring at the framed photographs on the wall.

One photograph had a group of young men, all with short, wild red hair, and startlingly similar faces. They looked like they could have been identical sextuplets. In another an older man sat in the living room they occupied, his hair white and thin, with a warm smile. Other pictures showed a couple of young boys, also with red hair and broad grins. Collectively it painted the picture of a loving, happy family.

"I bet that old guy must be Doctor Spring... And those must be his kids and grand-kids." Calliope noted quietly while she scanned the photographs as well. If Doctor Spring had a wife, she wasn't present in any of the pictures. Perhaps they had divorced after having a gaggle of red-headed sons?

"Does Doctor Spring have an office or laboratory?" 16 asked, rather out of the blue.

"Not that I know of. Violet said he worked out of his home... Which is impossible, since this place doesn't even have a computer." Huffing a bit, Calliope frowned at the pictures of what looked like a happy family. She went on, perhaps more bitterly than she meant to. "Unless he's got some kind of stupid, secret basement lab we don't know about."

"That is unlikely." 16 stated simply. "There was no entrance to a basement, that I could find."

"Yeah. I know." Calliope sighed. She reminded herself that not every scientist was mad, or had secret lairs where they plied their particular flavor of science.

Then again, she thought, Doctor Spring had been involved with illegal human cloning experiments. A secret lab with a secret entrance wasn't entirely out of the question.

The sound of banging from somewhere in the walls behind the two drew their attention from the photos. They turned around just in time to see the door nearby the kitchen burst open, and two men, armed with some manner of automatic assault rifles joined them. Guns pointed at the intruders with more than a little shakiness in their grip. Before Calliope had the chance to react in any way 16 had shoved her behind him protectively, and taken a step forward.

"Hold right there!" One of them shouted, his gaze flicking between the two.

"Who are you?!" The other man spoke loudly as well. The two of them spoke quickly, right after each other.

"What are you doing here?!"

The two men, who must have been twins, or at least brothers, looked pale with anxiety. More than that, she realized, they were two of the men from the photographs. With their fingers on their respective triggers, Calliope was glad that she had a capable android acting as her shield. Despite knowing how dangerous armed, scared people could be, she remained calm. These two were nothing compared to what she had been faced with lately.

"Lower your weapons!" 16 called back sternly, his voice harder than Calliope was used to hearing. "We do not mean either of you any harm."

The two men exchanged another glance between themselves but did not lower their rifles. Their grips looked to tighten further, and they held their muzzles pointed at the taller, armored android while they continued to shout consecutively.

"Get out of here!"

"Leave!"

"Go!"

"... Wasn't that a coat closet?..." Calliope asked mildly, with a glance up to 16. Her hands were held up near her head, well away from her own weaponry, she leaned out from behind the android. She looked between the two men, noting their similar faces, and the shared messy, red hair. "Um... You guys wouldn't happen to know a Doctor Spring, would you?"


	14. Digging Up Roots

Chapter 13: Digging Up Roots

* * *

~ (What's Left of) Ginger Town~

"My name is Calliope Merri-" She paused briefly, considering whether or not they would recognize the surname she had taken up on her own. "-Ah, Gero? Calliope Gero...?" It really shouldn't have felt so hard to say the name. "... Doctor Spring created me in a human cloning experiment, about 16 years ago?"

The information took a moment to process for the twins. Their previous nervous disposition gave way to brief confusion as they exchanged another look and muttered to themselves.

"Calliope?" She could pick out one of them saying.

"From that _Gero_ commission some time ago?" The other confirmed, and there was a flash of recognition from the twins.

"Ooooh! _That_ Calliope!" The twins immediately seemed to relax as they worked it through, their shoulders relaxing, and the aim of their rifles turned down to the ground.

"From the little muse project!"

While they talked excitedly between themselves, Calliope had stepped out from behind 16, and slowly lowered her hands down. _Something_ was finally working out in her favor, and that thought made her smile. However, like most of the things in her life that brought her any relief, it didn't last, and she raised her hands back up when the twins leveled their guns on her again.

"So, Calliope, what are you doing here?"

"Did Gero send you with big-mohawk-muscle-man?"

"You tell him Papa isn't interested in helping with his mad sciences!" The twins once again resumed yelling one after another. This time, they were not as shaky as before. Now there was clear anger growing to match Calliope's confusion.

"Doctor Gero did not send us." 16 spoke up firmly, once again bringing up a protective arm in front of Calliope. Again, the twins exchanged a look, not sure what to make of them.

"Yeah, he's actually dead." Calliope huffed a frustrated breath through her nose and reached up to shove 16's arm down as she took a step closer to the twins. "Look, guys, I don't know what my grandfa- _father_ -" She found herself correcting herself with some agitation, "- _Whatever_ , I don't know what he wanted with Spring that's upsetting you so much, but I'm not here for that. I just wanted to see if he knew anything about where my mother and sis- the other clones were?"

The twins gave pause at this and went back to muttering between themselves. Calliope felt that she shouldn't be surprised at this kind of welcome. It didn't make it any less vexing to deal with the Gero family reputation. When the redheaded men looked back at them, it was still with much suspicion.

"If you aren't here for..."

"-That other thing!-"

"Then why did you bring that guy?-"

"And the gun!"

"Yeah!"

"The gun was in case I ran across fucking looters!" Calliope suddenly shouted. She pulled her own gun off her shoulder by the strap and threw it to the ground near the twins. "It doesn't even have bullets! It's full of _goat tranquilizers_!"

"... Goat tranquilizers?"

"... Why do you have 'goat tranquilizers'?"

"I make giant goats! Sometimes they need to be sedated!" The dynamic of the conversation had shifted then, with the twins looking at their visitors with more a manner of confusion, while Calliope yelled at them. She hadn't anticipated being able to find Doctor Spring, and she certainly hadn't anticipated that his children would be so difficult. Thinking about it now, she felt foolish thinking it might be any other way. "And this guy?" She gestured up to 16, who as always maintained his stoic composure. "This guy is a _god damn sweetheart_!"

Somewhere in her sleep-deprived mind, Calliope did recognize the humor in trying to draw an elusive scientist out of hiding. She would have laughed if the ginger twins weren't still holding guns aimed at her.

"Alphie! Bet!" A voice called, with the lilt of an accent, that sounded like it belonged to someone's grandfather. "What the devil are you boys yelling about up here?"

From the assumed closet that the twins had appeared from, popped the head of a much older man, staring dumbly through thick glasses lens. He looked first at the twins, then over to Calliope and 16. He was shorter, hunched from age, with a balding head and white hair. When he caught sight of strangers in his house, he squinted at them.

"You two don't look like man-eating monsters. Or government agents." The old man stated and reached up to adjust his glasses.

"Papa, you shouldn't be up here!" One of the twins spoke up before Calliope had had a chance to answer.

"Alphie, hush." Snapping at the twin, the older man shook a cane he had been leaning on at the two redheads. "And put those guns down! You could shoot someone's eye out!"

"Um..." Calliope glanced up at 16, back to the family photographs they had been looking at, then to their unexpected hosts. She spoke softer, now that her train of thought at yelling at the twins had been properly derailed. "Doctor Spring?"

"Yes, that is me." The older man said, nodding. He had stepped between the twins and closer to them. With the taller, armed, red-headed men at either side, they looked very much like nervous guard dogs, who had lowered their aim only slightly. "And you two are...?"

"She's from that Gero project!"

"I'm sure that crazy bastard sent her this way!"

"Boys, boys! Shut up! What did I say about the guns!" Doctor Spring snipped, his voice immediately dropping to a chastising tone. He looked between the twins, this time smacking the ends of their rifles with his cane. As quickly as it came, his tone went back to a gentle tone as he looked back at her, now with a warm smile. "Ah! But then you must be little Calliope! It is so good to see you again dear!" Spring approached her, hands extended in a welcoming gesture. "Look at you! Oh, you're all grown up!"

"Ah, yeah. Its-Its good to meet you, Doctor Spring." Calliope wasn't sure how to feel about this sudden change in conversation and felt herself try to present herself with some awkward professionalism. It was a relief to make some progress, and to have found Doctor Spring at all, but she had never been comfortable with such warm receptions. She had never had to worry about such things with her own family.

"Oh-ho, listen to you, acting like this is the first time we've met. But, I suppose you wouldn't remember me. You were so young when Gero came to take you. Come! Let us sit and talk!" Spring insisted, as he grasped her hand, and began leading her back towards the closet he had emerged from. Calliope let herself go willingly, and pushed back the discomfort of Spring's familiarity.

She came here for answers, she reminded herself. Doctor Spring seemed like he would be more than willing to help her to that end.

On the way between the twins, Calliope swooped down to retrieve her own rifle and pulled the strap back onto her shoulder. Even with 16 trailing behind her, she wasn't going into an unknown situation without some sort of weapons of her own.

They were escorted downstairs- through a secret door in the back of what, by first appearances, was a coat closet- narrow flight of stairs opened to a large, windowless basement. Concrete made up the walls and ceiling, and the hard floor was covered with a multitude of colorful rugs. The support beams placed every dozen or so feet were decorated with all manner of doodles and pictures that looked like they were drawn by children. It was well lit with bright sterile lights along the ceiling, which didn't help how surreal it felt to be here. Being here felt like living out a recurring dream.

The back half of the basement looked curtained off and, Calliope guessed, was probably where any lab equipment would be kept, out of sight. Where they were lead to looked more like a living area, outfitted with a small kitchen, a table with chairs. The doors along the walls would lead off to bedrooms, bathrooms, perhaps a tv room.

Doctor Spring had a secret facility under Ginger Town. Of course he did, Calliope thought with dry humor to herself. With everything that had happened recently, she couldn't manage any surprise.

Compared to her own father, he proved a more gracious host, who took every effort to make Calliope, and even Android 16, feel welcomed. In short order they were sat at the square kitchen table, the twins on the other side eyeing their visitors, and Doctor Spring worked to prepare tea.

"So... Doctor Spring..." Calliope collected herself enough to ask while trying to avoid the glare of the twins across the table. "How long have you been in Ginger Town?"

"Oh, it must be about thirty years now," Spring spoke happily, bringing over to the table cups and teapot to go with the cookies and cakes set out. "The underground facilities came later, of course. As I'm sure you know, I couldn't very well do my work in any kind of _government registered lab_."

"Yes, with the... human cloning... and genetic engineering..." Calliope had to force the judgment out of her voice as she spoke. Now was not the time to look down her nose at illegal, unregulated experiments. Especially ones that she herself was a product of. That just seemed in poor taste.

"Precisely! Far too many restrictions and regulations gumming up the advancement of science!" Doctor Spring declared with a clear sense of pride, and a pointed look at the twins, who he had introduced as 'Alpha' and 'Beta'. The major difference that Calliope could pick out was a minor difference in their hair styling. Where both had short, wildly curly red hair, Alpha's bangs were brushed off to the left, and Beta's to the right. "I can tell you first hand that it is so freeing to not have to worry about appeasing any oversight committee or worrying about an ethical review. Ah, but that's all been behind me for quite some time now."

"Mhmm." Calliope nodded, unsure what else to say on the matter.

"But enough about me! What about yourself dear?" Sitting

next to her, Doctor Spring leaned towards Calliope, smiling and beaming at her. "You must be getting close to 19 by now, and from what I read in the papers you're doing quite well in the field of genetics! Oh, your life must be so exciting!"

"Yeah, up until recently it has been going pretty well. You might have seen some literature about my goats..." Calliope nodded again and forced herself to smile. "Um, and actually I'm only 16 years old..." She wondered if mad scientists had a tenancy to mentally decay faster than the average elderly person.

For a moment Doctor Spring simply stared at her, his smile fading by the smallest degree. He blinked, and nervously adjusted his glasses. "Ah! Right, right... I suppose I did smudge the numbers to Gero, just a bit."

"I'm sorry, what exactly do you mean by 'smudging the numbers'?" Calliope was quick to pounce on the subject. She hadn't touched her tea, or any of the sweets on the table, too distracted with watching Doctor Spring. It was a struggle not to outright glare the old man down.

"Oh, sweetheart, I didn't mean to upset you." With how concerned Spring looked, she guessed she hadn't done a good job of keeping her face as neutral as possible.

"I'm fine." Perhaps her steady gaze and lack of a smile were coming across wrong. Her colleagues had occasionally warned her that she had a case of 'resting bitch face'. "This is just how my face looks. You were saying, something about 'smudging the numbers'?"

"Well, you know the man, would you trust him with a three-year-old?" Spring scoffed and took a sip of his tea. He set the cup down gently before going on to explain. "The project finished on schedule, _but_ , as I am not beholden to accurate progress reports, I fudged the numbers the whole way through. I had seen the manner of things Gero was capable of, and if I could I would not have let you girls go at all. So, I kept you a little bit longer than originally agreed to-"

"Two years longer." Calliope interrupted briefly, unsure how to handle the information.

"Yes, because I was doing what I thought best for you girls. You were all at such a tender age." In this Spring was insistent, but gentle. He had leaned forward closer, setting a warm hand on top of Calliope's.

"Not that Gero noticed the discrepancy." One of the twins quipped, chuckling with his brother.

"Funniest thing in the world! ' _Oh look at you girls, you're so big for your age_ '!" The other twin chortled, with a mocking tone.

"Hah! The fool probably couldn't tell the difference between a three-year-old and a pumpkin!"

"Perhaps that's a tidbit better kept between us though, hm?" Doctor Spring cut in, winking at Calliope. "If I remember correctly, Papa Gero is a bit of a stickler for seeking revenge for perceived slights."

"Yeah... That shouldn't be a problem, he's quite occupied being dead." She said this plainly, with a cold edge, not wanting to rehash the subject again. The collective faces of the Springs fell, a bit shocked and then frowning with sympathy. Calliope waved a hand as if to dismiss any questions. "It's fine. He had it coming. _It's fine_."

" _Oh_. Oh, sweetheart, I am so sorry." Doctor Spring started in, and she could almost guess what kind of pity-riddled statements he would try to comfort her with.

" _Its fine_. I'm okay." Calliope snapped before the doctor could continue. She glanced up towards 16, who was carefully watching everyone, but otherwise had no reply in his usual stoic nature. This visit was getting out of hand.

"Ooh, that's scary." One of the twins uttered across the table. He had leaned closer towards his brother. "You can really see the resemblance when she's upset."

"Look, I appreciate the sentiment." She didn't, it served more as an annoyance than anything else. Calliope allowed her hand to be held by Doctor Spring despite her internal cringe of discomfort. "But I wanted to talk to you about something else, that's why I tracked you down. I was really just wondering if you would have any information on where to find my mother, or possibly the other clones?"

"Ah, finally getting curious about your roots, yes." Spring nodded but sounded oddly forlorn. "I am sad to say that no, I do not know where they are."

'Of course not.' Calliope thought sarcastically to herself but pressed her lips together to keep from saying anything hurtful.

"Your mother wanted no contact with anyone after the project. We had a strict confidentially agreement. But, again, I'm not beholden by law to honor such a thing." Shrugging now, Spring finally let go of Calliope's hand to lean back in his seat. He looked thoughtful then, "Of course looking back, I'm sure your mother recognized that none of this could be legally enforced. I am convinced that she knew us only through an alias. I have not been able to find any trace of her or your sisters since the project's conclusion."

Considering the nature of Doctor Spring's work, this wasn't necessarily surprising. Calliope had accepted that she might not find what she was looking for, even if she found the elusive scientist. Despite knowing this, she couldn't help but sag with disappointment inside.

"Yes, well, I'm not even sure what I expected." She leaned back in the chair, and finally took up her own offered mug of tea, momentarily cradling the warm cup between her palms. Once again the exhaustion was catching up with her and made everything seem far too frustrating to handle. Calliope set her cup of tea down, untouched, and came to a snap decision. "I think I'm just going to go."

"Oh! But you have just gotten here!" Doctor Spring perked up, set his cup down, and moved to lightly place a hand on her arm. "Won't you stay, just for a little while?" Perhaps it was the pleading tone, or the longing to know more about herself, but Calliope sighed and relented.

Doctor Spring did not have the makings of a dangerous man. Even if he proved this theory wrong, 16 would be more than enough backup. There was no harm in staying for a while.

For the second time that day, Calliope let Doctor Spring lead her by the hand, ambling to a side room. They sat for a time on a comfortably worn couch, within line of sight of the kitchen, where she could see 16 occasionally glance at her. She would give a small nod when she caught the android's eye, an indication that all was well. It was another area that she had no clear recognition of, but she stared at the simple green pinstripe pattern on the couch and found some familiarity there. She could almost remember her younger self, sat where she was now, reading through some manner of a picture book. Her memory wasn't clear enough for her to be confident in any memory. Considering her age by the time her father actually came for her, Calliope would have expected to have remembered more of this place.

At some point, they were joined by the two younger boys from the photographs upstairs, another set of red-headed twins. 'Delta' and 'Gamma' as they were introduced, occupied themselves with a board game on the floor, but otherwise did not seem interested in the adults' discourse.

It was surprisingly pleasant having a chance to 'catch up' and connect. This must have been what its like for regular people to talk. Doctor Spring, it turned out, shared a habit with Calliope's employees that she had always found peculiar- and occasionally annoying- in that he loved to take pictures of his loved ones. Where she usually had to feign interest in the pictures of others children and pets, Spring had taken the opportunity to bring out photo albums documenting herself, as well as her sisters. Calliope couldn't help but be drawn in.

"Oh! And here's you girls playing dress up, you all must have been just about four!" Doctor Spring cooed, pointing at one of the photos, as they sat close on the couch. It was eerie, to say the least, looking at family photos she never knew existed. Even more so seeing herself, and three other little girls that shared her face, hair, everything.

"We must have been a handful. How did you manage to tell us all apart?" Calliope, for the first time in what felt like forever, had a small, genuine smile as she looked over the pictures.

"Well, it gets easier with time. That and it helped to color-code you girls with different colored ribbons in your hair... Which you and Thalia always insisted on removing. Melpomene had a thing for just cutting off chunks of her hair for fun. Terpsichore was always tearing the heads and limbs off her dolls." taking a moment to chuckle, Spring flipped another page of the photo album.

"And I bet with the twins you had some practice."

"Twins? Oh! Alphie and Bet. No no, they are not twins. At least not in the commonly expected way." At this point, Spring took a moment to look at Calliope, and explain. "No, those two are my clones. Deltie and Gam too."

"... Huh. I don't know why that surprises me..." Calliope, at this point, felt the question bubbling in her mind but hesitated to ask. It had been a question that nagged at the back of her conscious since learning of where she came from. She took a breath and decided it would be best to cut to the quick. "What happened to Terpsichore? When I was reading through the notes it made mention that she was... ' _terminated_ '?"

Calliope watched Spring carefully to gauge his reaction. She didn't want to believe this sweet old man could do something like murdering her sister. One that she couldn't remember, admittedly, but that didn't stop her from feeling a sort of kinship with the others. For an instant Doctor Spring's face flashed with a look of horror, then confusion, and finally settled with a small, sheepish smile.

"Ah! Right! How could I have forgotten!" Spring moved to place his hand on Calliope's, as a sort of comforting gesture. "No, sweetheart, that was another fib I told Gero. Your mother didn't wish to take on Terpsichore,

Gero wouldn't have her because she 'didn't fit the profile' he was looking for."

"So she's alive? She's okay?"

"To my knowledge, yes. Your father had insisted that I 'deal' with her in his way," He said this with a certain venom that Calliope could sympathize with this, knowing the means her father would approve of. Spring fixed her with a stern look then. "But _I am not a murderer_. That is not who I am, nor what I do."

"What happened to her?"

"Oh, don't look so worried. I adopted her out to a lovely couple, one of them a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, I lost contact with them also. Last I heard they moved half-way around the world."

"Well thank goodness for that." Calliope breathed a long-held sigh of relief. That was at least one sister that was far enough away to be safe from Cell's previous killing spree. Thalia and Melpomene were still unaccounted for, and that was enough to keep her concerned.

They talked for a while longer, and for the first time in her life, Calliope could imagine what it must have been like to have a normal, even affectionate family relation. A kindly grandfather that she could have a civil conversation with over tea, who kept photo albums and, by the appearance of the doilies placed on the end tables, crocheted. It was almost enough to overlook the business of illegal human cloning and genetic engineering.

As the day drew to a close, and the sun began setting over Ginger Town, Calliope and 16 took leave of the secret lab. The android took his leave to go to the Minnows Farm, and she returned to her lab.

~Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town~

"Jay, how are things going? Do we have a new evacuation plan?" Calliope didn't wait until she was settled in once arriving in Nicky Town to call her tech support. Once she had landed she still felt restless from the day and took to pacing the main lab, from the rear entrance to the front, and back again.

" _Well... It's not great._ " Over the line Jay spoke over the din of what sounded like a party; music, people talking, and something that must have been a video game. " _I talked to my department, so IT is ready to bail when I give the word. Everyone else, not so much._ "

"Belfast still isn't listening?" On the second lap of reaching the broken door at the front of the lab, Calliope realized she was tired of being cooped up. Instead of turning on her heel to pace back, she instead headed out of the main lab. A walk in the early evening might help her calm down.

" _Hey, I've been trying to approach it with him as delicately as possible. I don't want him to get suspicious!_ " Jay defended himself, and it sounded like a riot was kicking off on his end.

" _Yeah! Fuck your couch_!" Someone was shouting triumphantly in the background. Calliope stopped on the steps outside of her lab to try and listen and figure out what was going on.

" _Dude! I'm on a call! Stop yelling!_ " This was Jay, and when he addressed her it sounded like he had drawn in closer to the mic to speak. "Sorry about the noise. IT is having a party in the hotel, and Nash is getting entirely into Smash Bros."

" _Seriously_? A party?" Calliope couldn't decide if she was annoyed or resentful of her technical crew enjoying themselves. There was still work to do. Peoples lives were still at stake.

" _Yeah, everyone's been pretty stressed with everything going on. I thought it would be a good chance for them to blow off some steam._ " Clearly, Jay didn't find an issue with this. As much as Calliope liked him as a person, professionally, she always thought she was too soft on his subordinates. " _Look, Calliope, there's nothing that we can do right now. Why don't you take the evening off?_ "

"... Well, I'm glad you guys are able to have fun instead of _helping_ me prevent a _goddamn massacre_." She ignored the suggestion of taking time off. She was already on leave from work, how much more 'off' could she be? "Just make sure they're ready to evacuate. Call me back later after the party." Calliope snapped and disconnected the call before Jay could reply. Stomping over the grassy lawn of the lab until she reached the sidewalk, she picked a direction without much thought. There was no use trying to plan anything now, not when her IT people were likely drunk and otherwise occupied with video games.

It was a mild evening, where the sun had faded enough that the world was deepening into darkness. Surprisingly enough the electricity in the city was still working, and the streetlamps began blinking on as she walked. Before too long she saw that she was wandering the same few blocks she frequented when working late nights. The street held a number of restaurants, a market, the dry cleaner she used, the bakery where she would pick up pastries for the lab.

When her mind got caught up on the exact specifications of what sugary treats she wanted at that moment, Calliope realized that she had gone most of the day without eating anything. Again.

"I really need to stop doing this to myself.." She muttered to herself as she stopped, crossed the street, and headed into the market.

Surprisingly enough the owners of the mid-sized grocery store didn't shut down everything upon the town's evacuation. The lights were still on, the air conditioning keeping the building cool, and the automatic doors weren't locked. Calliope supposed that they had been expecting to come back soon and perhaps didn't have the thought to shut up their stores properly. The radio that usually played whatever sugar-sweet pop song that topped the charts was now tuned to static.

Inside the shop, some areas looked to have been cleared out in the town's mad rush to flee. Bottled water, perishable goods were almost all stripped off the shelves. Calliope took up a small basket and, stepping over the clutter of discarded items around the registers, began a bit of shopping. Normally she would order take out on nights where she stayed in the lab, tonight, she tossed a few bowls of packaged ramen in her basket. Idly walking through the store, she also grabbed a pack of cookies, chips, and for reasons, she didn't try to understand, found herself lingering over the selection of wine and spirits. Half of the back wall was taken up with shelves of bottles and cans of all different colors and labeling.

Unlike many people her age, she had never much interest in experimenting with alcohol and drinking to excess. There were numerous studies done that showed the effects of the human body, so Calliope had never felt the need to drink more than a glass or two of wine in one sitting. She wasn't going to make any groundbreaking discovery on the subject of underage drinking, and never saw the allure of tempting a hangover.

But in times of stress, she could appreciate a glass of wine. With this in mind, she picked out a couple of bottles of an acceptable white wine to set in her held basket.

She packed her things in plastic bags near the register and hesitated before leaving. Calliope hated the idea of being a simple looter, and having tallied the cost of her items, left the appropriate amount of cash near the register. It was easier than a normal trip to the store, especially as she was able to pick the wine out for herself, and didn't need to convince one of her interns to purchase it for her.

Hell, she was two years closer now to being of legal drinking age, she remembered somewhat bitterly. Two years older than she thought she was, and with apparent gaps in her early memories. Calliope didn't want to think on that subject too deeply, not at that moment.

The walk back to the lab was slower, now that she was weighed down with the few groceries she had picked out. Once back, out of the warm night air, with her foodstuffs stocked in the break room's kitchen off the main lab, Calliope finally sat down to relax and eat. The lab's break room didn't have the most comprehensive kitchen, but it had enough to be able to boil water for her noodles, and a bowl to pour her chips into. Settled at one of the tables with her food, hoping to gain some mental distance from her current situation, Calliope eagerly ate. The break room's TV was changed to some dramatic medical show she couldn't name, in hopes of avoiding the news, as all she wanted was some background noise to her dinner.

This was a familiar routine for Calliope. Eating in the corner table that had the best view of the TV, feet kicked up on one of the nearby chairs, one hand holding her bowl, the other shoveling noodles into her mouth. She paused every few mouthfuls to eat chips and went back to tending her noodles and sipping broth. It felt like she finished off the ramen, as well as half the back of chips, in record time. The excitement of the day previously suppressing her appetite.

After some time to relax, she set her mind to try and figure out what to do next. She couldn't stand the thought of going back to Central City, to the auxiliary lab, where Belfast was trying to convince the other department heads of her mental instability. The idea of returning to her apartment, cold and empty and disconnected didn't appeal either.

She had always imagined that it would be in the possible future aftermath of things she could speak to a psychiatric specialist. But not as a present-requirement of her profession. Her sleep-deprived mind was having a hard time coming to terms with this.

Calliope certainly didn't feel mentally unstable. Not to the point of needing to talk to a professional about it, at this point.

Then again, if she was mentally unstable, would she be able to recognize that in herself?

Maybe she was emotionally and mentally unsuited for her position.

She didn't want to think on that subject too long.

Better not to think on that for now, she decided. Trying to change her upsetting train of thought, she mentally turned back to her discussion with Doctor Spring. She had known it was a possibility

that he wouldn't know where to find her mother, or siblings if they were still alive. There weren't even surnames to go on and no way to tell if the other clones kept their given names from the project as she had. The subject nagged on her mind as she cleaned up the break room, grabbed one of the bottles of wine and glass with one hand, a pack of cookies in the other, and made her way back to the back lab she had been occupying.

"See, this would be a great time to see if my IT guys would be able to find something on the other clones." Calliope started to speak as she set her dessert and wine down on the workspace. Normally she wouldn't eat in her labs, much less consume alcohol, and had chided her staff many times for the same thing, but tonight couldn't be bothered to adhere to such professional habits. She wasn't necessarily talking to herself, not when she sat on her work stool near the HoloCat Collective, where nearby Lil' Squishy floated silently. Uncorking the wine, and pouring a drink for herself into what usually served as a mug for coffee, Calliope gestured in the general direction of Central City. "Of course, they're all off _having a party_."

Pausing long enough to take a testing sip of the wine, Calliope continued, leaning with an elbow on the workstation. "Which normally I wouldn't hold against them. But we still don't have any kind of plan for getting people out of Central City. There are no nuclear power plants are close enough to fake a meltdown at. I suppose we could call in a bomb threat, but that would only get people out of the building for so long..."

She eyed the small tank and its contents, before looking away and drawing a deeper sip of the wine. "I'm going, to be honest, I wish I had Nash here. He's crazy but he would probably have an idea of where to start looking for my sisters."

Lil Squishy didn't respond and continued to float silently.

"Of course that may be pointless if they were anywhere in the nearby area, and future-you ate them." Calliope turned in her seat, one way, then another.

The small body in the tank, still unable to speak, only gave a single twitch of his tail.

"Which would be a massive dick move on Cell's part."

Now Calliope was starting to feel a bit silly, directing her comments to the still unformed genetic project. Before the trip to Ginger Town, she had gathered more suitable supplies to serve as impromptu life-support equipment for Lil' Squishy, and it had proved enough to keep him from having any critical episodes. There were proper intravenous lines run with better-prepared solutions of hormones and electrolytes, from several bags hung from standing poles she pillaged from the nearby hospital.

She spent time in silence, occasionally taking sips of wine until the pit in her stomach felt warm and her whole self more relaxed. Under normal circumstances, on a usual weekend when it was Calliope alone in her apartment, this was the point where she would have stopped drinking.

Tonight, calling up the HoloCat Collective to search for women, ages 16 to 18, with the first or middle name of Thalia, or Melpomene, she filled her mug with more wine.

There were tens of thousands of results for her to search through, as the system she worked with was by no means a database meant to find individual people. A few search results deep, she realized she really didn't know the first thing about finding people who she was never meant to know. After almost an hour, and getting nowhere, Calliope had switched gears from actively searching to nostalgic pining. Doctor Spring had sent her on her way with a photo album with pictures of herself and the other clones.

"You gotta admit, we were pretty cute kids." Removing one of the photos that showed two of the girls, Calliope stared at it for a time before turning it around, showing the picture to Lil' Squishy. "That would be me and... Thalia, maybe?" She frowned and looked at the picture again. "... Actually, I'm not sure who that is... Not that it matters. We all look alike."

She turned the picture back around, staring at it for a while. If Calliope had been asked before that day whether or not she cared about family mementos such as these, she likely would have scoffed. There were more worthwhile pursuits for her time, a lab to run, and science to do. Her father hadn't raised her to be sentimental. He certainly didn't take any family photographs, much less compile a photo album.

"I bet they're off, living their lives... Like normal, regular teenagers..." She sighed then, and replaced the picture in the album with care, not wanting to damage the only mementos she had of the other clones. "Probably on summer vacation at the beach, experimenting with boys and not worrying about _the end of the goddamn world_." This last part Calliope muttered with particular venom and followed it with a deep pull of wine.

With the accidental reminder that she needed to contact her IT department again, Calliope looked at the time and had to take an extra moment to force her eyes to focus her eyes to see the numbers. It was nearly 9 o'clock. They were probably still partying.

"Hey HoloCat, send an email to Jay." At the moment she couldn't be bothered to try and get a call through to her team. Not when they'd been drinking, and the volume of their revelry was likely even louder now. "Just tell him I'm sorry for, you know, being a bit of a bitch earlier. My blood sugar was low and I'm tired and that I really do appreciate everything he's done lately. He's an indi... indisp..." Calliope blinked as she tried to get her lips to correctly pronounce her words without slurring. " _In-di-spens-able_. To the team... And to call me later. Or in the morning. Whenever he's able. Okay. That's all. Send it."

"Okay, Doctor Merriweather!" At her wrist HoloCat's avatar bobbed, the email icon over its head indicating it processing her request. It was unlikely Jay would answer till the next day. It was also unlikely, Calliope realized, that her techs would be able to track down the other clones, or her mother.

As neither Doctor Spring or her Fake-Aunt Violet had a clue where to find them, the only other people who would have a better chance were either dead, in the case of her father, or didn't want to be found, as her biological mother. Calliope sagged against the tabletop, one hand wrapped around the mug of wine, the other turning a dry cookie between her fingers. Her eyes roamed the back lab, still lit by the too-bright artificial lighting, and filled with her own projects. Pursuits that the Minnows BioSolutions Ethics Committee would be interested in, surely.

Wine and cookies that spread crumbs on the workstation- she decided she could clean those up tomorrow- the HoloCat Collective set together with their projected screen that still scrolled through the earlier attempt at finding her family. There was still a loaded rifle leaned near the door- even if it only had tranquilizers in it, protocol dictated that firearms were not allowed in the lab. Lastly, the jar full of an objective abomination, that Calliope had taken measure to ensure stayed alive. She breathed out a sigh, lingering on the problem that allowing the present-day, smaller, currently innocuous Cell proved.

There was someone, Calliope realized, that _possibly_ had more information on the other clones.

 _Possibly_.

When the thought entered her mind, she immediately frowned. Normally she would be too stubborn to even consider it, but tonight she took another sip to steady her nerves and brought her wrist up.

"Hey, HoloCat..." Leaning closer than usual to the HoloCat avatar, Calliope found herself whispering. This was not something she wanted to be loudly broadcast, even if she was the only person in ten-miles. "Could you fly one of the drones out to Cell's Arena?"

"Um... Okay, Doctor Merriweather..." The adorable cat-blob's smile faded then and seemed to hesitate. It followed through with the order nonetheless, and so close to the HoloCat Collective the drone's camera view opened on the middle screen. "Drone is en route. ETA 10 minutes."

"Thank you HoloCat." Calliope stared at her digital assistant, and its somewhat sad face staring back. She couldn't bear to be stern to it, even if it was a unit of artificial intelligence. It would be best to head off any concerned conversation, she decided. "Don't... Don't look at me like that. _I know_. It'll be fine. I'm just gonna fly a drone out there, ask him a few questions, fly the drone back. Ten-minute conversation. In and out. It's not like I'm going to invite him over to kill me or anything."

"... Okay, Doctor Merriweather..." HoloCat did not seem convinced.

At this point, Calliope felt confident enough in her decision, and for now, decided to ignore the AI. It felt like a brilliant avenue that she hadn't considered before. Cell was reasonable enough to talk to, even if he was frustrating as all hell to deal with personally. And, if her future-self had the tenancy of talking to herself as much as she did now, the clones were likely a topic of conversation at some point. Which, if she was assuming correctly, Cell must have been cognizant enough to listen in on. _Possibly_ , at least.

In the handful of minutes it took for the drone to fly to its destination, Calliope made several attempts to keep herself entertained. She checked her emails for any news from her tech support- surprisingly enough Jay had replied to her, with a rambling message about how he loved Calliope like a little sister and assured her that the party was still going strong. She felt that could have been written off as a drunken message. Then, her attention still fleeting, she shook out her hair from the tight ponytail, ate another cookie, and looked over a few more search results in the hunt for her clone-sisters.

Somehow a result for a 53-year-old woman named Thalia made it on the list; she wrote a series of popular, if trashy, romance novels. Calliope purchased and downloaded the author's top-selling novels- 'The Sword's Snake' and 'Temptation of the Flame Lord'- and got to a handful of pages into the first book in a fight against boredom. Between the lofty description of the protagonist's breasts and the stiff dialogue, she was relieved when HoloCat's alert came through.

The drone had arrived at its destination, stopped some several hundred yards from the edge of the arena, and high enough to observe the surrounding area. Calliope, having bookmarked and closed her digital copy of the trashy romance novel, watched the screen for several moments. Usually, at this point, the drone would angle itself to descend and approach, automatically controlled by HoloCat's connection. At the moment, the drone didn't appear to move at all since its initial arrival.

Frowning at the screen, Calliope leaned in to stare at the thin, holographic projection, wondering if the video feed had frozen. She watched carefully until she recognized the slight movement of dust being blown along the ground.

"Um... HoloCat?" The feed wasn't frozen on the last image. The drone hadn't moved. As she had the video pulled up on the central panel of the HoloCat collective, it left her personal device free. Calliope, while waiting, had taken it off her wrist, and laid it next to the wine bottle. She perched her chin on her hand, leaned on the table, and shared a long look with the blue blob. When the avatar continued looking back at her with no response, she tried not to sound too annoyed. "... Why isn't the drone moving?"

"..." HoloCat didn't respond right away. It did frown and look away.

" _HoloCat_."

"... I just don't think its a good idea to keep flying out at talking with Cell..." HoloCat tried to explain, quite sheepishly.

"Oh, c _ome on_. Please don't be like this."

"But Doctor Merriweather! Every time you talk to him you get upset and yell and-"

"Yeah, well I've been very stressed out lately. A lot of things have been making me upset." At this point Calliope laid her forehead on the tabletop, lightly banging it in frustration. "Remember the raccoon? I spent a good half hour yelling at him this morning, and he's not nearly as dangerous as Cell is."

"... It's still not advisable to engage in further contact with Cell..."

"HoloCat. It's _fine_. Cell will probably be _super stoked_ that I'm talking to him." If their previous conversations were any indication, Calliope felt that this should be an easy topic to approach.

Especially with her frayed nerves soothed by the wine. With the alcohol acting as a social lubricant, this shouldn't be as difficult as the other meeting she had faced of late.

" _Nash,_ " Calliope froze, HoloCat appeared to blink down into its projection lens, as both were startled by the sudden cold, threatening tone. " _I believe I was perfectly clear last time what would happen if you flew one of your damned drones out here to pester me again._ "

While HoloCat's avatar cautiously poked just its ears and eyes out, Calliope blankly stared at the screen, which was now filled with a glowering pinkish gaze of Cell. She glanced at HoloCat and made a gesture to open the mic from her end.

"Uh... Hey." Was all she could say at first. Calliope reminded herself to remain professional, level-headed. She would not be baited into screaming again. "Hi, Cell. Ah. It's Calliope. Definitely not Nash."

"... _So it is._ " Cell spoke after a moment. He had floated back from the camera, enough that Calliope could watch him continue to glower at the drone, arms crossed and frowning. " _Calliope, you need to do something about your IT personnel_."

Leaning her head back, the thought of having a serious, stern conversation seemed incredibly unappealing for the foreseeable future. Calliope groaned, maybe a little louder than she intended to, before bringing her attention back to half-watch the drone's screen, and Cell's annoyed stare. "Ugh. Okay. What did Nash do now?"

" _He's flown your drones out here, twice, talking all manner of nonsense, and asking if I 'do parties_ '." At the last part Cell mocked air quotes with a harsh emphasis to his words. He sounded more annoyed than she had ever heard in their previous encounters.

"... And... You weren't interested in partying with the IT nerds?" Calliope, despite herself, found herself laughing. Occupied for a solid minute of trying to control her giggling fit, she managed to focus on the conversation again. On the screen, Cell was still frowning but blinked with a perplexed look on his face before she could pull herself together.

Professional.

She was trying to be professional.

That seemed an impossible standard to maintain at the moment.

Through a grin she found hard to suppress, Calliope feared she came off as more casual than she would like. "Right. Sorry. That was inappropriate. I'll send Nash an email about drunk dialing."

" _And while you're at it, remind him that I wasn't joking about killing him in the slowest, most painful way I can if he keeps disturbing me_." Cell didn't seem willing to let the topic drop quite as easily.

"I will be _sure_ to mention that." Rolling her eyes, Calliope made a mental note to send a memo out to her IT staff about using the drones. That was something she could take care of later, perhaps after this conversation had wrapped up. Where usually such threat directed at her staff would upset her, for now, she felt she could gloss over it.

"... _I thought you suspend Nash's access to your systems_." On the screen, Cell had taken a moment to answer and sounded like his irritation was dulled by her newfound lax mood.

"Yeah. Well." For a breath, shrugging to herself, she struggled to come up with a decent answer. "He's a hacker, he probably hacked his way back in. That's just _what he does_." Then, worried that she would remember later, Calliope padded through the supplies on the desk until she found the post-it notes and a pen. She continued talking, careful to enunciate her words carefully to avoid slurring her speech and wrote out a note to herself. "It probably wasn't that difficult since he redesigned our network, firewall, cyber-security things. I don't know the specifics. But I'll be honest, had I known Jay was planning on hiring someone with a criminal background, I would have had something to say about it. Too late to do anything about it now. I don't want to tempt our network going down _now_ by firing him."

Did she even have the authority to fire Nash anymore? That decision would likely have to go through Jay, or Belfast, especially if her position was terminated.

" _I see._ " Cell said simply but didn't seem interested in pursuing the matter further. From the space he occupied on the screen, arms crossed and frowning slightly, he squinted slightly as he peered into the camera.

It was sometimes difficult to remember that he wouldn't be able to see her. Especially now when he held such an intent gaze.

" _Calliope_..." When he spoke up again, it was without any of the previous annoyance. His question caught her off guard when she picked up her mug of wine. " _Are you feeling alright?_ "

"Me? I'm _fine_!" Calliope said this, perhaps a little louder than she intended to, and took another long drink of wine. "Why, do I somehow seem _not_ fine?" Now would be the time to mention how much stress Cell himself was putting her under with his threats of genocide, and other topics, but didn't feel like revisiting the topic. At least not right now.

"When was the last time you slept?" Cell quickly fired back, to which Calliope couldn't hold back a brief, barking laugh. "I've seen you do this before, you know. Staying up for days on end, exhausting yourself to the point of breakdown. Do you have any idea how unhealthy that habit is?"

" _Hey. I have been sleeping just fine._ " She said this with a strong conviction after controlling her giggle fit. After another sip of wine, Calliope was immediately hit with a sense of guilt. " _No. Wait. That's a lie. I have been napping, however. I am actually doing quite well at the moment._ "

She was doing an excellent job of not slurring or stuttering her words. The extra effort to emphasize her words came across so strong. She may not have sounded professional, but at least she sounded self-assured.

" _You sound unhinged._ "

"Well _that's_ probably the wine's fault more than anything," Calliope stressed this, in a mockingly serious tone. It took a moment for her to process what exactly she admitted to, and wince inwardly. Drinking in the lab was absolutely not professional or responsible.

" _The wine?_ " At first, Cell blanked with a look of surprise. This turned into a bemused smirk. " _Calliope, I'm shocked. Have you actually been having fun with your coworkers at their 'party'?_ "

"I don't _do_ parties either, Cell." She felt the need to defend herself, but that didn't stop how amusing everything was at that moment. Trying to sound severe only resulted in her sarcastically babbling. " _I'm not some carefree teenager running around, rebelling against the establishment, experimenting with intoxicants, kissing boys_." Calliope paused long enough to lick at her lips, which were starting to feel pleasantly numb. " _Besides, someone needs to make sure this place doesn't get looted._ "

The humor of the situation didn't escape Cell, fortunately. On the screen he seemed to relax to a degree, uncrossing his arms to brace on his hips with a warm chuckle. Calliope leaned with her head against one hand, while the other refilled her drink from the nearby bottle with a loose grasp.

When it almost slipped from her fingers she reminded herself she needed to be careful. She was in no mood to have to clean up broken glass.

" _So you're getting drunk, alone, in your lab._ " Cell chortled and inclined his head to one side as he teased. " _That is almost as endearing as it is sad_."

"I'm neither _drunk_ , nor _alone_. I have a whole gaggle of HoloCats here, and I also have a rather smarmy chimera on a video call." The fact that she reached out while imbibing reminded her why she had called Cell in the first place. "Speaking of, I did actually want to ask you something."

" _Really now. Aren't you afraid I'll just take this opportunity to 'mess with you'?_ " This time, while he still sounded friendly, there was a certain edge to his words that Calliope still caught on to.

It really shouldn't have surprised her, she realized. The last time she reached out to Cell the conversation somehow ended with her going off in a berating ramble. Whether it was deserved or not didn't matter, she couldn't imagine he left that call without some resentment. Calliope thought on the subject with lingering embarrassment, and a surprising amount of guilt.

Then again, Cell wasn't anything close to innocent and undeserving of a good berating. Still, she believed she could do better. They could have a perfectly civil discussion, free of bitching and taunting.

"I do, that is definitely a concern that I have. But, with the wine, I'm experiencing the 'lowered inhibitions' people always warn about when drinking. And you're one of the few people who may know anything about what I'm looking into." It was only then that it dawned on her how she might feel about this in the morning when the pink glow of the alcohol wore off and she would be forced to return to her usual severe, sober mindset.

That would be a problem for Sober Calliope to worry about.

Right now she watched Cell as intently as he watched the drone. This felt just like their previous conversations, where neither party looked away from the other, constantly watching each other like rivals. For Calliope, she could only parallel the feeling to what it must be like to try and converse with a massive disaster or some manner of apex predator. Only now she felt far less tension, even though she could recognize what a dangerous hobby this was. Such casual conversations with a mass murdering psychopath could not always end well for her personal safety.

She had never considered herself a dare-devil of any manner, but the last week had felt like she was fighting her own self-preservation instincts. At this point, despite herself, she almost didn't mind the company.

"Besides, didn't you tell me you respect me too much to lie to me?"

" _That's true, I did. And I must admit, its refreshing to see you so conversational. Even if you are drunk._ " For a short time Cell didn't go on, instead, he regarded the drone thoughtfully. "... _Oh, go on then. What do you want to know?_ "

"Okay, well, bare in mind that I am still on leave from work. So I've had _entirely_ too much time to myself to think." Calliope paused long enough to sip her drink, not wanting to think about her professional life, which was steadily going to shambles. "And I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that future-me probably talked to herself, out loud, excessively, right?"

" _I wouldn't say excessively, but, yes, you did. Why?_ "

"Because. I know you probably don't care about this particular subject, but its something I care about. And _future-me_ probably cared about. In any of the pedantic, long-winded rambling, did she-" Pausing for a moment, she corrected herself in trying to get the words right. "Me? I." That sounded good. "Did I ever mention anything about the other clones?"

" _Ah, so you're on the hunt for the rejects._ " Cell said this with a familiar, mocking way that didn't annoy her quite as much as it usually would.

"Clone sisters, not rejects." Staring into her wine, she mused aloud, with considerable effort to make sure she didn't slur or stumble over the words. "... I mean _technically_. Yes. I know. Technically speaking, you could call them 'rejects'. But that seems too mean to me, so I'm going to call them my clone sisters. My... Clonesters...?"

It seemed like a brilliant term, even if it made her giddy and caught in another laughing fit that lasted longer than she would usually allow. On the screen when Calliope caught sight, Cell clearly didn't grasp the humor, as he stared dubiously at the drone, but remained silent. When she managed to calm herself down again, by taking deep breaths, and reminding herself that this was meant to be a professional conversation. Or, failed professional, at least coherent.

"Don't make faces! _I'm funny._ " Pointing at the screen with a wavering finger, Calliope had to squint to see the screen clearly and felt her head swaying as if on its own accord.

" _Right. Of course you are._ " At this point Cell was speaking to her again, sounding more serious than she could manage at the moment. " _Exactly how much have you had to drink?_ "

"Not a lot." Calliope hummed to herself, and looked back at her mug, trying to mentally count how many times she had filled it over the evening. When that failed, she looked at the nearby bottle, picked it up, and gently shook the remaining contents. "Oh. Huh. Guess I've had a whole bottle to myself..."

She was not ready to end the evening, and the idea of running out of wine now seemed tragic. Not when she felt so pleasantly warm and amused and dizzy. It was no wonder that so many people drank to excess.

" _Calliope_." Suddenly Cell was frowning at the camera, sounding much too business-like for their casual talk. " _Put the wine down_."

"Okay, fine. The wine is down." Calliope said this, with a growing smile as she continued holding the bottle. She wasn't about to be told what to do by anyone, much less an omnicidal psychopath with great abs and a smooth voice that was quite pleasing to listen to.

Calliope cringed inwardly as the thought went through her mind.

" _Good. Now, do you think you can get yourself to bed without hurting yourself?_ "

A long moment passed, Cell staring at the drone, while Calliope cradled the wine bottle in her lap, and tried to sip from her mug as quietly as possible. She mulled over the suggestion of going to bed.

"Uhh... No, no thank you." While getting sleep was the smart decision, she detested the idea of being told what to do even more.

"... _No, you can't get to bed, or no, you're refusing to go to bed?_ "

"I'm not going to bed because _you_ aren't my supervisor, _and_ because you haven't answered my question about my _clonesters_." While she spoke, her voice raised steadily in volume, Calliope made a sweeping gesture in frustration. The mug in her hand slipped from her fingers, apparently tired of the conversation, to smash to several pieces on the floor. "Tsk. Damn it.."

" _What was that?_ " On the call Cell had perked up, sounding something close to concerned.

"My coffee mug committed suicide..." Turning this way than that in the stool she perched on, Calliope was regretting not getting more stable seating for the evening. Especially now that the room took it upon itself to start twisting and spinning.

'Alcohol can affect balance by changing the viscosity of the fluid inside the ear canals.' The factoid that she had read in some official report flitted through her mind.

" _Calliope, this is getting ridiculous. You're clearly too drunk to hold a conversation with. Go get some rest_." Was Cell starting to get annoyed? That was an amusing turn of events, all things considered.

"That sounds like a personal problem. You should probably take it up with HR." At this point, Calliope felt herself talking without too much thought, but on a roll with funny quips. Perhaps she could have made a name for herself as a stand-up comedian. She was tilting her head slightly, experimenting with how off-balance she really was. "Besides, what are you gonna do, come here and _make me go to bed?"_ If her own impairment wasn't so amusing she might have regretted those words.

"... _You know, I can appreciate that you're far too intoxicated to understand how embarrassed you'll be in the morning_." Cell was talk again, sounding light and friendly again. Calliope didn't quite have the attention span to listen too closely to _what_ he was saying. She did notice when friendly turned into playful -and yet somehow- threatening. _"I'll be there in a few minutes_."

"Don't I have another bottle around here somewhere?" Now that her mug was smashed on the floor, Calliope was now looking at the wine bottle with the remaining liquid. There were barely a few ounces sloshing around the bottom.

There was still another, untouched bottle, in the break room. She remembered this, grinning, and intended to let Cell know that she was stepping away for a moment, but would be back to continue their talk.

"That's super great and all, but I'm..." She chanced to look over at the screen, and it took it several moments to click what was wrong with the picture. "... Hey... Cell?... Where did he go?"

That was fine, she decided. She could fetch herself more drink, come back, and figure out where Cell had gone. It was a simple plan, and like all her other ideas for the evening seemed _brilliant_. Stepping off the stool, the sudden shift of her balance caught Calliope by surprise. She managed to take two unstable steps when, between her legs wobbling, and the room tilting, the floor rushed up to meet her.

"Ow! Ow... oww." From her place, face first on the floor, Calliope muttered to no one particular, even though she couldn't feel her face, aside from a warm dripping on her forehead. Despite herself, she couldn't help but laugh again. "I'm okay! I'm fine!"


	15. Not My Supervisor (Feat DJ Pinot)

Chapter 14: Not My Supervisor (Feat. DJ Pinot)

* * *

~Cell Games Arena~

Cell couldn't decide whether to be more annoyed or amused by how the evening's events had turned.

Originally, he thought he could spend time in silent, meditative solitude. That was before the drones started visiting.

First, it had been Nash. The hacker of some notable disrepute who was, once again, drunk. From the sound of it, the whole of Calliope's IT staff was drunk- which likely said something about the current moral at Minnows BioSolutions than anything. It would have been an admirable show of courage if the tech agent wasn't intoxicated, with questionable mental health to start. The interaction proved more irritating than anything. Especially when it was followed up, 15 minutes later, by another drone, flown directly into Cell's forehead.

" _Heeey Mister Big Guuuy~!_ " It was like Nash didn't even remember the previous conversation, Cell's insistence that he be left alone, or previous threats. Cell didn't engage except to try and glare death through the drone's camera's, which took some effort as the drone swerved and darted through the air. It would waver in one place, then drift, as if manually controlled. On the other end of the line, with the sounds of music and liveliness of a party, Nash didn't stop talking. " _Okay, yes, I know you didn't want me to bug you anymore, but seriously man. Party time. Come on. Come get turnt on moonshine_!"

Cell could not wait to kill everyone on this planet.

"... _Dude, can you hear me? Is the audio working on this thing? Hellooo?_ "

Cell continued glaring down the drone, while Nash was occupied by trying to troubleshoot nonexistent issues with the call. Equal parts ire and vexation crawled up his spine.

" _My mic sounds nice, check one!_ " Nash called out, with a voice that was adjusted to a much louder level than before. Several seconds passed, and Cell briefly considered sending a blast towards Central City, carefully aimed so as to most certainly kill this annoyance. There would be a sizable amount of collateral damage, but it would get the job done. " _Keep staring at the drone like someone shit in your cereal if you can't hear me._ "

Was this on Calliope's order? Did she feel the need to sic her tech support on him as a roundabout form of revenge for a perceived slight? _Was Calliope trying to mess with him by way of drunken idiot?_

"The sound is coming through _fine_ , Nash." Cell finally spoke up, without trying to mask just how irritated he was with the current situation. If he destroyed this drone like the last one Nash had sent out, there were likely dozens more that would be ready to fly out. No, he needed to deal with this surprisingly oblivious idiot. "Where _exactly_ are you having this party?"

" _Oh we're having at- waait._ " Over the line, Nash gave an audible pause, and this time sounded a good deal more confused. "... _Are you asking because you are interested in party time, oor...?_ "

"No, I am not interested in 'party time', Nash. I am also not interested in getting 'turnt', 'wasted', 'blitzed' or any of your other inane suggestions." Before the drone had a chance to bob around the air further, acting as drunk as its operator, Cell snatched the faux insect out of the air. Held between two fingers, he brought it up close to his face so the camera had no choice but to look at him, and hopefully, see how serious he was in this matter. "I'm only going to say this once, with small words, so you don't get confused, and I'd like for you to listen carefully. If you continue on pestering me, I'm going to make a special trip and find you. Then, I'm going to kill you in the slowest, most painful way I can imagine. Is that clear?"

Sweet silence on the line lingered for several moments. Perhaps that had done the trick to scare Nash off.

"... _So... That's a hard no on party time?_ "

This really wasn't worth this time, Cell decided, and without another word crushed the offending drone with a closed fist. Trying to talk to Nash was an exercise in madness. He shouldn't have to actually show up in person to incite the correct amount of fear and respect. _The threat should have been enough, damn it._

It seemed such a shame he hadn't gotten to Nicky Town before the faked meltdown and subsequent evacuation. Nash wouldn't have this chance to be as annoying when broken down and absorbed like so many others.

Exactly half an hour later, just shortly after Cell managed to calm himself, there was another drone. He had just walked himself back from the idea of going ahead with a surprise visit to Central City, perhaps finding out where the Minnows IT department was at, and actually killing Nash. He had reminded himself that there would be a time and place for that later. Right now the hacker served as part of collateral, and in skipping ahead in his plans would only lose ground with Calliope.

When this latest drone appeared, Cell's mind was already starting to work on how to possibly explain to his favorite genetic engineer why a large portion of Central City turned into a crater overnight. He was not expecting for Calliope to be calling on him, especially not in such a good mood- much less _drunk_.

Was there some human holiday that Cell missed where they all threw caution to the wind and indulged? It was the wrong time of the year for Saturnalia if that was even celebrated anymore.

As amusing as an inebriated Calliope was, it also brought its own set of concerns. Had she been with her staff, it would be a different story. But alone, likely drunk enough to be a danger to _herself_ \- with all that glass labware and sharp corners? That was practically a recipe for disaster.

She would surely be easier to deal with than Nash. Calliope always prided herself on being sensible and collected, too much wine couldn't undo that. Cells conviction to this last point wavered the more he listened to her.

He couldn't rely on threats to change her behavior, not when she was rambling of her own accord and turning everything into a joke. Not to mention that would just serve to damage a bridge that was already in need of repair. No, this particular situation called for a more personal, less violent touch. A quick trip, long enough to put Calliope somewhere out of harm's way, maybe pinch a nerve to see that she actually went unconscious.

Cell had arrived at the nearly abandoned lab, in the nearly-empty city, and as he had the last times, took a few moments to stand in the entryway, listening. Calliope would be the only one here and from somewhere not too deep in the building by the sounds of it. There was the soft sound of... Giggling? When passing through the halls towards the back, he stopped at the doorway of the break room when he caught a strange sight.

There she was, sat on the floor in front of break room's refrigerator, a packet of cookies to one side, a bottle of wine gripped in her hand, and a steady stream of blood running down the right side of her face. Even outside of the obvious head injury, her appearance was enough to give Cell pause. She was dressed down casually, slacks and a tank top- which was collecting blood on the front of it- with her hair down around her shoulders. Most out of place aside from warm flush on her face was the sustained, gleeful grin as she threw a cookie at the far corner of the break room.

" _Calliope_!" Cell hadn't intended to shout, but this was a far cry from what he expected to find in the lab that night.

Calliope, momentarily startled, looked up at him and the next moment her smile returned as she pointed at Cell, cookie in hand, matching his volume. "Hey, you!"

"What the _Hell_ did you do to yourself?" After asking this, Cell didn't wait for anything that might pass for an answer. In an instant he was kneeling before Calliope, grasping one side of her face, and trying to brush aside her hair to find the source of the bleeding.

"Whoa- hey- movin' too fast!" Calliope actually pouted and was unable to struggle beyond a weak attempt to slap away his hands. After a second she relented as if distracted, and leaned into Cell's palm. "Ooh, your hands are _warm_!"

"Calliope, _what_ happened?" Even as he asked this, Cell could tell he wasn't likely to get a sensible answer. He did manage to find the number of small cuts below her hairline, where a purplish bruise was already forming. Not too deep to require stitches, but it appeared to have small shards of ceramic in the cuts. It was hard to tell whether it was the intoxication or potential brain injury making her act so out of sorts. Possibly both.

"That. Is. A great question." Calliope said this slowly, with a slight slur to her words. She smiled again and lifted the bottle of wine in her hand. "I _found the other bottle_! That's what! Yeah."

"To your head." Cell could feel his frown deepening by the minute. So much for Calliope being easier to deal with, he thought with mild annoyance. "What happened. To your head."

"My head is _fine_! What are you even talking about, with-with your face." While still focusing on the state of her head, Cell was just about to respond with a remark about how maybe she needed to be more concerned with the state of her own face but was cut off. "Oh! Hey! We found the gene for shyness!" There was a twinkle in Calliope's eye as she spoke, once again bubbling with giggles. "We would have found it sooner but _it was hiding behind two other genes!_ "

It took several moments for Cell, with divided attention on Calliope's wound, to process what exactly she had said. "... Was that a _joke_?"

"Uh-huh!" Calliope tried to nod as best as she could, but given that her head was being held in place, appeared to settle for flashing a toothy smile.

"Hm." Pulling back a bit to get a better look at her, Cell looked over Calliope with some incredulity. This light, bubbly personality change was concerning. The Calliope he knew

didn't joke. Not in a genuine, good-naturedly way. Sarcasm was more her field.

"I am _giving up science._ " Calliope, for just a moment, broke with her currently mood and looked stern. She went on to explained without prompting and blinked heavily while looking around the room. "Not doing anymore. Nope. Uh-uh. You know what I'm going to do instead? Comedy. Stand up comedy."

"Calliope, I need you to look at me." This had to be the alcohol talking, Cell reasoned. Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he leaned closer to her face when she managed to redirect her attention. Her pupils were smaller than the last time they spoke in person, but equal in size, and didn't appear to hint at any neurological damage. There was some redness, likely from the alcohol, but also just as likely from Calliope not sleeping enough.

Still, he would need to keep on eye on her for some time to ensure she didn't have a brain bleed. Babysitting a drunk scientist - _his_ drunk scientist, Cell corrected himself mentally- was not how he had planned to spend the evening. Calliope was supposed to be better, more responsible than this. She wasn't supposed to be a sloppily drunk mess.

"Hey. Hey, Cell. How many biologists does it take to change a light bulb?" Calliope asked while Cell mulled over the options of possibly taking her to a hospital to be examined. He didn't care to answer, and she didn't wait for him to try. "Four. One to change the light bulb, and three to write the enver... Erven... En-vi-ro-men-ta-"

"Are you trying to say 'environmental'?" Cell cut her off before the end of the struggling attempt at another joke. It was too painful to try an listen to that particular attempt.

"Yes!" Flashing a brilliant smile, Calliope sounded quite chipper, and unperturbed by her current impairment. "I can't feel my face."

"That's not much of a joke." He took this opportunity to snatch the wine away from her, placing it far out of Calliope's reach. More drink was the last thing she needed right now. "The bottle and a half of wine haven't helped, either. I take it you have a first aid kit somewhere around here, right?"

At this Calliope stared in what might have been a thoughtful way, with a slight frown and furrowed eyebrows. "Hmmm! Probably? Would be, like, a really bad violation of safety standards to not have them, y'know?"

"Stay here. Don't try to move." Taking her by the shoulders, Cell pressed her back against the refrigerator, as secure as a drunk girl sitting on the floor could be.

As Calliope had pointed out, first aid kits were a standard requirement for a laboratory environment. It was not the kind of thing she would have overlooked, given her love of protocol and rules. At the very least he could patch her up and then, as much as he resented the idea, keep an eye on her until the alcohol had worn off. So much for a quick trip to 'make her go to bed' he thought with limited humor on the matter.

Just as he had turned about, intent on finding whatever medical supplies were available, the furry dark blob in the opposite corner caught his eye. Lounging back against the wall in a similar manner to Calliope, the current raccoon infestation focused only on the chunks of cookies clutched in its tiny clawed hands.

"... Calliope..." Cell wasn't sure what to say about this. One day she was complaining about the creature getting into her lab, now it appeared she was feeding it cookies while- and he could only assume this- using it as a sounding board for jokes. "On second thought, never mind. I'm not sure I want to know. Just stay there."

" _You're_ not my supervisor!" Calliope practically crooned at his back, and Cell had to pause in the doorway, close his eyes, and take a breath before moving forward. "Hey... Where... Where did my wine go?"

There was no point in engaging her right now. It would just lead to some kind of absurd argument that, while he was sure he could objectively win, would be pointless.

So he left the break room- with the hope that Calliope could avoid hurting herself for no more than the minute or so that it should take to find a first aid kit. With the bottle of wine in hand, he had reached the lab and started scanning for what he was looking for. In a smooth motion, Cell sent the bottle off through the still-existing hole in the ceiling, at such an arch that it would land well outside of the lab's property lines. Many of the lights had been shut off, leaving the main lab with a softer glow, and the smaller rooms along the back darkened- all except one at the far corner which remained fully lit.

Cell could spare a few moments to snoop in on Calliope's recent activities. He couldn't help the curiosity of seeing how she had been keeping herself lately. She couldn't have been completely preoccupied with just a random strain of corn and guarding her lab against looters. Between how quiet the lab was already and his sharpened senses, it wouldn't be difficult to keep an ear focused on her. At the moment she seemed preoccupied with mumbling jokes to herself again.

"Why can't you trust atoms?" He could hear Calliope in the break room, and her attempt at another joke. "Because they make up everything!"

The first thing of note in the back lab was the smell, a mix of sour, woodiness of spilled wine, with an undertone of sharpness from chemicals. Cell looked over the scene of the lab with a slight frown. Along the floor was the remains of a mug, with a small splattering of blood, presumably where Calliope injured herself.

One of the lab stations had a collection of HoloCat devices, which in stand by mode had defaulted back to the blob-like avatars with ears and a simple face- and upon seeing him in the room, they all collectively collapsed into their bases. There were papers and post-it notes, an album that looked full of pictures of young girls that bore a similarity to Calliope. Further down the table was a strange setup that was altogether out of place for the lab.

In the space of a breath, he was at the end of the sturdy table, leaning in to try and get a better view of what exactly occupied this tank. Some type of fetal goat? No, the cranial shape was wrong. Surely a lab of this caliber would have more streamlined equipment to maintain something of this nature. The set up looked pieced together in a haste. But the longer he stared, leaned in with his hands on the table to examine the container, the IV lines run to it, and the small creature inside, the more an eerie sense of familiarity grew.

Was that what he thought it was?

No. It couldn't be. Calliope, with her current attitude, would never allow that in her lab. At least, Cell had originally thought so. Though it did explain why she insisted on staying in Nicky Town, alone and estranged from her staff.

"You know.. For all her guff about morals and ethical standing, I am genuinely surprised to see you here..." Cell spoke softly, almost exclusively to himself, but could not help but smirk at this quandary. His younger-self, weak and pathetic, simply floated there in silence.

But what exactly was Calliope doing with his younger, unformed self, in her lab? It couldn't have been from some sense of familial duty. From the sound of their last conversation- when she was at least sober and coherent, if exhausted- it would have taken no less than an act of God to get her involved with this particular experiment.

She couldn't have thought she could use any knowledge gained to try to stop him, did she? Even if that was the intent, why leave this one alive? Calliope was knowledgeable enough to know how to preserve tissue for analyses. It hardly made sense.

"Um..." Just a few feet away, several of the HoloCat's had peeked their heads up just enough to eye him. Cell looked back at the few devices, with an immediate frown of disdain. The HoloCat that was speaking up looked separated from the rest, and it continued shyly as if egged on by its fellows. "Well... You're not supposed to be back here..."

"This area is restricted!" Another HoloCat piped up, its high voice sounding somewhere between cheerful and upset. The rest of them joined in one after another in a chorus of tiny voices shouting up at him.

"Authorized personnel only!"

"This facility is currently under evacuation order!"

"Please exit the area immediately!"

"Business hours are-!"

"All of you, stop! Stop talking, immediately!" No sooner did Cell yell this at the HoloCats that they fell silent, and all but one blinked out. The last HoloCat stared up in defiance and held his gaze with a rather blank expression.

The staring match with the AI cat-blob didn't last long. From back in the break room Cell picked up the sound of Calliope, who must have heard at least his tone, if not his words, and assumed who he was talking to. "Don't you talk at my HoloCats like that! You aren't their supervisor!"

"Doctor Merriweather is right. You aren't our supervisor." The lone HoloCat said this in the cheerful default voice it was programmed with."You aren't even an employee."

For a brief moment, Cell contemplated destroying the collection of offensive AI. He could knock Calliope out, stick her in a closet, and come back in the morning to ensure she wasn't dead. It was a short-lived thought, but he dismissed the idea of abandoning the current situation in favor of the solitude of his arena.

That wouldn't do. Especially not with Calliope in her current state. She had done a fine job of making herself more vulnerable during what Cell could only imagine was the throes of a nervous breakdown. Of course, this did present a unique opportunity. Cell glanced back once more to the tank on the table, before glaring down at the HoloCat again. "... Where can I find a first aid kit?"

"First aid kits are readily available at the front and rear entrances in the main lab area, as well as adjacent to entrances of the annex labs located at the rear of the building."

"... Hmp." Cell decided that this was not an argument worth pursuing either. There was only so much information they would be able to give him as, according to HoloCat, he wasn't an employee. He turned from the HoloCats and headed out of the room, snatching the first aid kit from near the door on the way, and made his way back to the break room.

Calliope, as he had correctly thought, hadn't stayed planted on the floor in front of the refrigerator. She had found her way to sit upon the countertop next to it, legs dangling, with the refrigerator door left swinging open. The raccoon was nowhere to be seen, possibly somewhere still in the lab. If the creature had any sense it would have left the premises. When Calliope caught sight of Cell again, her face lit up and she threw her arms up, almost losing grip of the bottle of water she had. "Hey! Hey you! Where'd you get off to?"

At least it wasn't another bottle of wine, Cell thought mildly. The last thing he needed was for her to become even more intoxicated.

"I went to find a first aid kit because you have a head injury." Cell said this as if it was obvious but quickly realized that Calliope probably didn't recognize that she had been hurt. He sighed, mostly to himself, and stepped up before her to place the first aid kit on the counter.

"Pshh, no I don't." At this Calliope rolled her eyes, and swayed a bit on her perch. Before she had a chance to lean too far too one side Cell grasped her shoulders, righted her, and with a little focus of his energy managed to keep her in place.

"I would argue that yes, you do, but I feel that would be wasting both of our time. Hold still." He felt he managed to say this without accusation and went to work trying to patch her up. Despite her attitude, Calliope let him tend to her head without complaint. She did maintain a curious gaze at him when he again brushed the hair from her face, and away from the cuts. Cell didn't waste time with tweezers to remove the small shards of ceramic from the cut and was able to remove them with minimal effort without lifting a finger.

"Ow! Ow! Geeze, what the fuck!" Of course, this didn't escape Calliope's attention, who immediately tried to flinch back with limited success. She visibly winced, and a small stream of blood sprang fresh down her cheek.

"Calliope, hold still. I'm almost done." Cell encouraged firmly but knew she wouldn't be able to, even if she wanted. As laughably weak as she was physically, it would be like a mouse trying to fight off a lion. It might be endearing if she didn't possibly have a concussion.

"What are you even doing?!" Calliope's voice only raised higher, growing more upset by the second.

" _Calm. Down._ " He had to say this even more sternly to cut off whatever she was going to say next. She glared back at him, with a frown and that familiar cold, severe look of the Calliope he knew. Turning his focus back to her head wound, a collection of cuts, and with a few small, precise sparks of energy, cauterized them.

" _Gah!_ Stop! Ow! Ow." With the alcohol acting as pain relief, it seemed her complaints eased after a moment. With the initial wound closed up Cell released her, and she immediately resumed swaying gently to and fro. While one of her hands was occupied holding that bottle of water, her other hand wandered up to feel along her forehead, smearing in the blood.

"Don't pick at it." Cell snatched her wrist before she had a chance to scratch at the freshly-closed cuts. He had pulled her hand away, but when she caught sight of the bright red coating her finger, Calliope's face fell with shock.

" _Am I bleeding?!_ "

"You were."

"What the Hell happened?!"

"Stop yelling. You're fine." When she continued staring at him, with a clear mix of worry and confusion, Cell continued simply. "You fell down and hurt your head. Presumably sometime after breaking your cup on the floor." Letting go of her wrist, he flipped open the first aid kit and retrieved alcohol wipes and sterilized gauze pads. While he had no problem with bloodshed, it was difficult to see Calliope covered in her own like this. It only served to remind him how fragile she was.

"Ooh right... I fell down..." She said this quietly, still looking at her hand smeared with blood. Cell watched her for a moment, waiting to see if she would go off yelling again, or perhaps on an absurd tangent. But she remained silent, frowning down at her fingers.

Sure that she was settled, Cell took the hand she was occupied with and wiped at the blood with the gauze until it was clean. While it was an odd evening, he had to admit it was not entirely unpleasant. The strained, brittle thing that was their relationship seemed on more sure footing, at least for the time. With any luck, it might carry over when Calliope eventually sobered up.

"You might have a concussion." Cell eventually said, switching to the clean alcohol wipe. He reached up to Calliope's face, grasping her chin in one hand and gently wiping at the blood along her cheek. While she stared at him, wincing some when he lightly wiped over the cuts, he continued. "I'll stay with you tonight, and, should you need it, take you to a hospital." Though Cell could imagine what a mess that would turn out to be if it came down to it.

Calliope continued to stare at him, blinking slowly. When she eventually spoke up, it was with a much quieter voice, and clear effort not to slur her words. "Wow. That is actually really sweet of you."

"You sound surprised." Cell frowned briefly but resumed cleaning up her head. He brought out a fresh alcohol pad to wipe at the remaining reddish streaks on her skin.

"Well, yeah, 'cause you're kind of a mass murdering psychopath." She said this matter-of-factly, with her eyebrows arching upwards. This strange character that drunken Calliope adopted was hard to get used to- there wasn't any of her usual reservation or professionalism. Everything was left to slip out free and unfiltered.

Cell paused at the comment and frowned at the short assessment. Of course, that's what Calliope thought, he had accepted this some time ago. Hearing it put so plainly didn't make it feel any less... Unsatisfactory. "I suppose that's a matter of perspective. I'm sure you wouldn't call an exterminator to deal with an insect infestation, and then refer to them as a 'mass murderer', would you?"

"PETA probably would. Also, _also_ -" Despite trying to sound serious, Calliope had a small, secret smile as she reached up to poke him in the chest, "That is a very disturbing comparison to draw... So _maybe_ I'm not the only one who needs a psych eval."

He hadn't given much thought to what she was saying, sure that it would be her usual moral stance on killing, but without a sober, cohesive filter. Tossing the bloodied alcohol wipe aside, Cell picked out an appropriately sized adhesive bandage but stopped to look at Calliope again. What was this about a 'psych eval'? She went on without prompting, perhaps catching his questioning look. While she talked, he took the opportunity to apply the bandage, and try to piece together what she was trying to say.

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you about that? Yeah! No! This-this is great." Calliope's smile was quickly fading, and she gradually grew louder. The louder her voice, the more the argument she was trying to make lost its coherency. "Because after years of building this lab up, and working late, and-and making sure we were following regulations, and trying to organize, and- and- I do my own taxes! I recycle! I contribute to charities to save the bees! Belfast- that salty fucking dog, wants me- me- to go through a _psychiatric_. _Evaluation_." She eased to a stop, and Cell watched a still, bleak look fall over her face. He had been smoothing the edges of the bandage to her forehead while she spoke, mostly to herself now. "Oooh god damn it. That's right. He's reporting me to the ethics committee... I'm gonna be under investigation... _Fuck_."

"And why would Belfast go through the trouble of putting you through an investigation and evaluations?" With just days to go until his tournament, and ultimately the end of humanity after that, Cell was surprised that they would be so concerned with such proceedings. What did the perceived failings of one scientist matter at this point? Near as he could tell Calliope was squeaky clean at this point in time.

Well, except for that whole 'fake nuclear meltdown' situation.

"Because I fucking told him, like, _everything_." She wasn't looking at him, instead glaring around the break room without focus. "Nothing makes you sound crazier than insisting the genetically-engineered super soldier from the future wants to be your buddy."

"Ah, so you did end up taking my advice." Despite the situation, and Calliope as distressed as she was, Cell couldn't help feeling satisfied at this. He smiled then, pleasantly surprised with the news. No wonder she was going through a nervous breakdown.

" _Fuck_. Fuck." Calliope didn't look to acknowledge him for a moment, and her shoulders sagged. " _There goes my career_. Fuck. I should have seen this coming."

"Oh come now, it's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be." He tried to sound comforting but could help if his smile leaked into the sentiment.

"God. Damn. It. Yes, it is. _Yes it is._ " Nodding furiously, Calliope shook out her hands in front of her. She was gulping down breaths as if there wasn't enough air in the room, and her heart was starting to sound like a drum in his ears."It's all my worst fears being realized."

Cell leaned in then, close enough that they were face to face, and tapped under her chin to draw her attention back to him. He spoke softly, trying to draw Calliope back from this sudden turn of dark thoughts. "I want you to put this unpleasantness with Belfast out of your mind. By the time I'm

done with this planet, you won't have anything to worry about."

"They're having a meeting about it in the morning to start the ethics investigation-"

"Ah-ah." Cell had cut her off to shush her before she continued with that train of thought. "Everything will work itself out in the end, I promise."

That seemed to help calm her down if her slowing heartbeat was any indication. Calliope blinked a few times and seemed to accept this as she nodded a number of times. Then, without a word, she had leaned forward to close the distance between them to press her lips to his. Cell froze on the spot, unsure how to react as she slipped her hands up around the back of his neck and pulled him closer. He was staring wide-eyed as her eyes slipped closed, and an unfamiliar warmth spread through his core.

It must have only been a few moments but felt like time had slowed before his wits returned enough to act. He grasped Calliope by the shoulders, and lightly pushed her away until she was held at arm's length away.

Cell was left momentarily speechless. He stared at her, trying to find something- anything really- to say in response. Calliope blinked up at him, lips slightly parted and looking wild and alluring. The first words he could manage out of his mouth sounded dull with shock. "You're drunk."

"Mm-hm. Yep." Calliope nodded and looked completely unperturbed.

"You should _not_ be kissing people when you're drunk." That had come out more chiding than Cell had intended.

"Yeah. Probably not." Again she nodded, and Cell let go of her shoulders to leave her to sway slightly. With a sudden polite smile, she slapped her thighs before easing herself off the countertop. "Right. I'm going to head home."

"That... is a good idea." Cell watched her but had to fight the urge between distancing himself further and closing in on her again. He had to take a moment to collect himself. Putting her to bed what was he had come here to do in the first place. "You need your rest."

She was drunk. She possibly had a concussion. It was possible the gesture meant nothing, like her sudden interest in a career in stand-up comedy. Then again, in her drunken state, she didn't seem to be inclined towards hiding anything. Cell doubted that she would have otherwise told him about being under investigation by some ethics committee.

Drunk as Calliope was, she managed to walk in a slow, meandering pace that swayed one way and then the other. She didn't seem concerned about leaving her lab unattended now, as she wandered out of the break room, through the lobby, and out the front door. Cell followed after her, close enough that he'd be able to step in if she started to fall. In any other situation he likely would have insisted on carrying her, but after that kiss being that close to her just seemed... Inappropriate.

She stopped short at the bottom of the steps at the entrance to look back at Cell, then the building, and then waved with a dismissive. "Eh! It'll be fine for the night." Whirling back around, Calliope continued on but called over her shoulder. "Besides, no one's comin' to Nicky Town now with the whole meltdown scare."

"Hasn't your main concern been looters?" Cell latched on to this new subject.

"Nah, that's just what I've been telling people. I mean.. don't get me wrong, looters are part of it. Sure. But all the equipment is insured out the ass. I haven't really found a way to explain the super illegal genetic engineering experiment that I'm still holding onto, though."

"You're talking about myself, correct?" When she turned to fix him with an odd look, and one eyebrow quirked upward he continued. "I saw him, at your lab. I believe you were still referring to me as 'lil squishy' at that size?"

Calliope had stopped short and turned about fully to look at him with a narrowed gaze. Cell watched her, ready to counter any perceived slight she was sure to think of. Instead, she inclined her head a degree, "... Are you following me home?"

"I am."

"... Why?"

"Because you have a head injury, and I'd like to make sure you don't _die_."

"... Oh. Right. Well. What has two thumbs, and-and doesn't need a babysitter?" She didn't wait for a reply before jerking her hands up, thumbs out, pointing at herself. Walking backward, Calliope grinned to herself. 'Babysitter' was an apt choice of words for how this evening was playing out.

"Is that suppose to be another joke?"

"It _is_ a joke. Because I am funny." She finally put her hands down and spun around to keep walking. Calliope hadn't been keeping to the sidewalk and had taken to sauntering down the middle of the empty street.

They had only gotten a few blocks or so from the lab by now. Escorting Calliope home was taking painfully long as it is was with her meandering. However, she didn't put up any further protest as Cell followed after her.

"You're not upset then?" Cell had been eyeing Calliope with some suspicion. He had thought she would have some sharp rebuke for him. Perhaps something about how it 'wasn't any of his business' to go 'snooping around her lab', even a contrite look or a sarcastic quip.

"That you don't get my _awesome_ sense of humor? No. Why would I be upset?" This was a topic that was better left for the morning, Cell decided. Provided Calliope was sober, lucid, and without a brain hemorrhage. "I don't usually like jokes either, because I am sober and _unfunny_ and, let's be honest here, kind of a miserable bitch."

"Never mind." Cell eventually answered. Then, quieter to himself, "I'm sure you'll find the opportunity to complain about it later." If she remembered this conversation in the morning.

By the time they reach her apartment building- a whole ten minute walk away from the lab- Cell was surprised that Calliope had managed not to fall down or hurt herself. They made it to up the elevator, where she leaned against the wall and hummed along to the tune of the dull music. Then, he followed her as she half-stumbled to the door at the end of the hall, and after several tries with several different keys, finally got the door open.

"Woo! Made it home!" Calliope said this with a sense of victory as she stepped in, leaned against the wall, and kicked her shoes off into the living room. She swiped at the wall a number of times before managing to turn the lights on. Cell had just stepped in after her, made sure the door was closed and locked, before getting a look at the place.

The interior was clean, white, and clear clutter. The living room held a simple white leather couch, a large flat screen television, a coffee table with a neatly stacked pile of what appeared to be scientific journals. One wall that faced the outskirts of Nicky Town was consumed entirely by windows. There was a distinct lack of personal effects or knick-knacks, aside from a few tastefully minimalist decorations. The only piece that stood out was a small jade goat figure on a shelf with some books. It only took Cell a few moments to take in the details of the apartment, while Calliope had wandered off towards the adjacent kitchen.

She was muttering to herself with obvious delight, and Cell could catch the phrase 'more wine somewhere' as Calliope dug through a cabinet. He sighed inwardly and was on her before she could react. Before she made any further move to uncork the bottle she had gotten her hands on, Cell had snatched out of her hands and had thrown her over his shoulder.

" _Hey_!" Calliope, now confused and held in place with a hand on the small of her back, kicked her feet in protest. "What the hell! Put me down!"

"I'm guessing you don't recall our earlier conversation, Calliope. I told you to stop drinking, you said I wasn't your supervisor. Then, I told you to get some rest, and you said 'what are you going to do, make me go to bed?'" Cell said this last part with a mocking inflection. He set the bottle of wine down on the kitchen island and started towards the hall that lead from the living room. There had to be a bedroom somewhere in the apartment. "Well, here I am, making you go to bed."

"Wha-what? When did I say that?"

"Fifty-three minutes ago." The first door in the hall lead to the bathroom, which was tiled in white and, like everything else, pristine.

"Noo! But! Wine!" Of course, she continued to complain, now with slightly more whining than before. She stopped kicking though, and Cell could feel her trying, and failing, to push herself up from his back.

"Calliope, _no_ , the last thing you need is more wine." Cell said this and briefly wondered if she had ever acted this childishly when she was an actual child. The next room in the hall was a small office and looked significantly more lived in than the rest of the apartment. There was a pile of unpacked boxes in one corner, the desk was a mess of paperwork. The last room at the end of the hall was what Cell was looking for, where there was a full-sized bed neatly made with a pale green comforter. The furniture was all made of a fine, dark hardwood

He gently tossed Calliope onto the bed, where she immediately propped herself up on her elbows. Cell glared down with the most intense disapproval he could manage, making it clear he wasn't going to be swayed on this subject. While didn't move from his spot at the side of the bed, but also refused to move an inch closer. She returned the look, through the loose hair that fell into her face, one eyebrow arching. They glared at each other for several moments before she breathed in deeply with a yawn. Her commitment to this particular stand immediately seemed to wither.

" _Fine_. You win. Jerkface." Calliope mumbled as she first rolled her eyes, blinked heavily, and lightly flopped back onto the bed. She grumbled out a few more nonsensical things Cell could not make out, and further rolled onto her side to nestle into the wealth of pillows on the bed.

There, he thought with limited satisfaction, it was done. He waited until Calliope was truly asleep- with a calm, steady heartbeat and slowed breath- to relax his watch on her. Unless she took up a habit of sleepwalking, it was doubtful she'd find her way back into trouble until the morning. Easing back from the bed, Cell stood posted at the wall, arms crossed as he watched her sleep.

The night had become more complicated than Cell had anticipated, especially where Calliope was concerned. Once her intoxication wore off it was unlikely she'd remain as the bubbly, joking mess that she had been that evening. Her attitude was clearly explained by the nature of intoxication. Obviously, the pipedream of becoming a comedian was related to the stress of her current occupation, a need to escape.

Then what the hell was that kiss about? Perhaps she had been acting on some latent attraction to him? That seemed the most reasonable explanation.

After all, this was _him_ she had kissed. Not some random, pathetic pedestrian. Cell certainly couldn't fault her for preference.

Before he could think on it more, a phone ringing somewhere brought him out of his thoughts. Cell frowned and had zipped out of the bedroom, into the kitchen, to pick up the offending phone before it could ring for a second time.

" _Hey, Cali-girl! How you doin'?_ " The man on the other side of the phone didn't wait for any kind of greeting before practically purring on the other line.

Cell at first wasn't quite sure what to make of this caller, but immediately found an abundance of disapproval. Between the hour of the night and the familiarity with Calliope, he felt it was best to turn whoever it was away. " _Doctor Merriweather_ is not available right now. She'll be indisposed in until the morning."

" _... I see_." The caller went quiet for just a moment. " _Well, have her call me when she's able_."

"And who exactly should I say called?" It certainly wasn't Belfast on the other line asking these questions. It also wasn't Nash and sounded sober enough to not be one of the other people in the IT department. Cell would have thought anyone paying attention to the news would recognize his voice, and react appropriately. This one didn't seem dissuaded in the least.

" _Seriously? Ah, you must not be one of our Minnows staff._ " It was terribly assumptive to think anyone would recognize him with how this call had gone. On the line, the man chuckled and recovered an amused mood. " _You know what, that's fine. Tell Cali her 'Corporate Overlord' called. Hah. It's an inside joke, she'll know what it means._ "

There must have been something going on with the humans this evening, thinking they were funny. This 'Corporate Overlord' wouldn't think it was funny when he was wiped off the face of this planet with the rest of them in a matter of days.

" _Actually... How well do you know Cali?_ "

"We're quite well acquainted. Why?" It took some effort to not come off as hostile. Cell was trying to remember if Calliope in his time had ever mentioned anything about this individual, whether in this timeline or his own. From what he had overheard, what felt like a lifetime ago, she rarely contacted anyone outside of her associates at the lab, primarily her IT staff, before all contact was lost.

" _I'm just trying to follow up on some developments at MBS_." Which were no doubt related to Cell's recent visit to the lab in Central City, and that 'investigation' Calliope had mentioned earlier? " _How's Cali been doing? Has she been acting strange, out of character, anything like that?_ "

"Calliope is _fine_." Cell answered this coldly. As far as he was concerned it was none of this self-proclaimed 'Corporate Overlord's business how she was fairing. He certainly wasn't going to tell this brazen stranger the truth. "I'll tell her you called. _Goodnight_."

Cell disconnected the line without waiting for a reply, not quite sure what to make of the call. He could let Calliope know, in the morning, provided she was back to her usual self. Not that it would matter, in time. Perhaps it would even be better to let this detail slip.

He looked at the phone for a few more seconds before replacing it in the charging cradle and turned away from the kitchen. Aside from the sound of Calliope sleeping across the apartment, the township was quiet. Cell stepped through the living room to stand before the large windows, crossing his arms before going still.

There would be time to finish sorting things out tomorrow.

All things considered, it had been a rather good night.

~ACTION NEWS IN THE MORNING~  
~3:15 AM REPORT~

"Good morning viewers, and thank you for tuning into our," The news anchor, a man whose hair was just starting to go gray, had to look at his watch to confirm the time. He cursed quietly under his breath, "Geeze, our 3am report. We're continuing our analysis of the so-called 'Cell Games', which was announced just days ago in our very own studio during the afternoon broadcast."

The news anchor shuffled the papers before him and gestures to the wall behind him. There is still evidence of damage, and obvious repair attempts with plywood boards and sheets of plastic. The anchor keeps a stoic face, and a professional tone as he continues, occasionally glancing just off camera to his side. "Why they haven't just _moved_ us into a different studio, that doesn't have a hole in the wall, is anyone's guess. Perhaps we're supposed to be looking at the damage as a reminder of the potential danger that the world could be facing in the coming days. Or maybe its because most of our studio execs have jumped ship and are currently fortifying their bunkers in preparation for Doomsday, and honestly our operations here are borderline disastrous. My producer is telling me I should stop talking about _the giant hole in the wall behind me_ , and introduce our guests."

The camera pans to the right and shows the two guests seated at the table. One of them, a nervous looking older man that has the look of a professor, dressed in a tweed suit with wild, uncombed hair. He taps his fingers nervously along the stack of thickly filled files he has seated before him. The other guest, who looks equally out of place, but remained smiling while appearing completely occupied by her phone, was a young woman. She was dressed in the hip clothing that belonged in a club, with a healthy tan, sharp green eyes, and a head of soft bubblegum pink hair.

"With us this morning we have cryptozoologist Doctor Cromopolis, and Thalia... Nolastname?" The anchor looks at his paper for a few moments, trying to hide his confusion. "Who is an Instagram model, and does some work for well-known brands such as-"

"Uh, excuse me, _I am not an 'Instagram model'_." The girl suddenly looks up from her phone long enough to give the anchor a stern look. "I'm an _Influencer_. Okay?"

Our anchor maintains eye contact with Thalia before she goes back to tending her phone, and he looks to Doctor Cromopolis. He looks too tired to press her for questions about herself, or what she's doing on the show.

"So, Doctor Cromopolis, we've been hearing a lot of rumors and conjectures about this 'Cell' character. He's already claimed responsibility for the death of thousands and threatens complete annihilation. Theories currently range from him being an extraterrestrial, a demon, a swamp monster- What's your take on all this?"

"Well, I gotta say, myself and the guys have been looking over the evidence, and its pretty obvious what's going on here." Doctor Cromopolis shifted in his chair, and nervously looked between the camera, the girl next to him, before finally fixing the anchor with an intense gaze. He spoke with a concerning amount of conviction. "It's the Lizard people."

"Lizard people?" The news anchor asked, maintaining his composure.

"Lizard people," Cromopolis confirmed with a nod. He went on to explain at a fervent pace, "I'll give you and the viewers a rundown, they'll knock out the signal as soon as they realize what I'm explaining. What you've got to understand is that the Earth, as we know it, is hollow. It's hollow! Ages ago we drove the lizard people underground, they've been living inside the Earth, and they must have advanced to a point where they could send one of their best soldier- That's Cell- to the surface to begin their Purge! Cell is here to wipe us all out before they can return and reclaim the surface-"

"Oh, my god!" Thalia interrupted, sounding more accusatory in her exclamation than anything. "Cell is totally not a lizard person! That's like a crackpot conspiracy theory."

"It is not! I have the proof right here!" Cromopolis' face was starting to grow red between his nervous disposition and needing to defend his theory. He scrambled to search through documents in his folders, apparently trying to find something to support his argument.

"Dude! Its like, totally obvious what's going on here! Clearly, Cell is an actor hired on by some company to a _viral marketing campaign_!" Both the anchor and Cromopolis stopped to look at Thalia, and it's unclear whether their looks are of disbelief or confusion. She puts her phone down for just a moment, "Like for a horror movie, or like an energy drink? They're probably going to do some big reveal at his fighting tourney thing, or, whatever."

"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard!" The anchor looked like it was about to say something, but was cut off by Doctor Cromopolis. "Clearly the lizard people are testing our readiness before the full-scale invasion!"

"Have you ever met energy drink makers or horror film producers?!" The other guest had raised her voice to shout over the doctor, gesturing while holding her cell phone. "They are super weird people!"

"Young lady, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about! Why are you even on this show? Why is she even on this show!"

"Uh, first of all, screw you!" Thalia still maintained the loudest voice in the studio. "Second, this is just like when they were promoting that movie about swamp monsters and had guys dressed up like swamp monsters roaming around East City throwing mud at people!"

"This is completely different! People have died!"

"Oh my god! _Clearly that's part of the hype!_ "

The news anchor had long-since given up on trying to edge into the conversation. He sat back in his chair, with a vacant look, blinking frequently as the yelling pitched higher. Eventually, after loosening the tie from his neck, he wrote out on the back of a paper in broad strokes. Holding up the paper long enough for it to be read- baring clearly 'I QUIT'- the anchor crumpled up the paper, tossed it aside, and got up from his chair. The broadcast cut to commercial with no warning.

~Calliope's Apartment~

The first sensations Calliope registered as she woke up were a splitting headache, a sour stomach, and distinct confusion. She recognized the clean lemon and mint smell of her apartment and cracked her eyes to see she was in the bed she rarely used. But could not explain how she got there. The previous night felt like a blur that she was not anxious to remember. There was a vague feeling she had done a number of things she would be ashamed and embarrassed about, but it was hard to tell what was memory or dream.

Parts of last night _had_ to have been a dream, right?

This, Calliope thought spitefully to herself, this is why she didn't drink more. Especially in the quantity, she had last night. This is the exact thing she had been avoiding.

She winced at the dim sunlight that came through the shaded windows and put an arm over her eyes. Today would have been an excellent day to go right back to sleep for several more hours.

First, she needed coffee. No. Water. Something wet for her dry and sticky mouth.

She pushed herself to roll over and shuffled full body off the bed to her feet. A wave of dizziness gave her pause, but only for a moment before she shamble-walked towards the kitchen. Entering the living room she could barely keep her eyes open with the bright light streaming through the window.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you awake so soon." It was an odd thing for Holocat to greet her with, but Calliope didn't have to energy to pay it much mind.

She groaned in response, her throat too dry to even attempt speech. Navigating mostly by memory, she clumsily filled a large glass of water and gingerly started chugging.

"I hate to be the one to say it." When did HoloCat's voice get so deep? Was there some kind of update that went out on the voice settings? "But I did tell you to stop drinking much earlier in the night."

Her stomach feeling a little ease, and the light was a little easier to bear, Calliope blinked as she gathered her surroundings. The voice hadn't come from her wrist where she normally had her digital assistant strapped, but near the large window. That was not HoloCat, she thought blankly. Unless HoloCat had been able to grow a body seven feet tall with an annoyingly smug face. She had to blink a few times to get the figure to make sense in her mind.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." She said almost immediately, with a rasp to her voice.

Great. So drunk dialing Cell hadn't been a dream. Telling all those stupid jokes probably wasn't a dream either. It was too early in the morning to try and deal with this, Calliope thought.


	16. Hair of the Dog

Chapter 15: Hair of the Dog

* * *

~Calliope's Apartment, Nicky Town~

"Oh for fuck's sake," Calliope muttered to herself, then leaned her head down and closed her eyes against the morning. She longed to go back to bed.

"Well, good morning to you too." Her guest spoke in a tone somewhere between amused and offended. Had he been here all night?

"Cell... What, um... _Why_...?" She let the question draw out, but did not have the ability to finish it. When she did bring her head up, she found herself too tired to be as upset as she felt she should be. Cell was looking too smug for so early in the morning and was watching her too keenly.

"Are you trying to ask why I'm here?" Cell asked this from his space near the window where he had turned to look at her. She nodded in response but otherwise found herself speechless at the moment. "I'm here because you have a head injury, and I wanted to be sure you didn't die."

Calliope blinked, and in a moment of deja vu felt that particular phrase was all-too-familiar. Hadn't Cell said that a number of times to her the previous night? Most of the evening had been too fuzzy to remember outright, the memories just out of reach like a dream. With her brain in a haze, she wasn't excited to recall anything. She had hoped that drunk dialing the mass murderer was a dream.

She remembered thinking what a fun time she was having.

"Okay...?" Calliope trailed off as if waiting for Cell to continue, as she watched him with some suspicion. Several moments passed silently, and instead of answering the implied question - _What the Hell are you still doing in my apartment?_ \- Cell crossed the open living room until he was across the kitchen island from her. He leaned against the counter top, and with his height was tall enough to just about be in Calliope's face.

"How are you feeling today? Any headache, dizziness, nausea?" While she was annoyed at the sudden scrutiny, she also arched an eyebrow at the suddenly serious line of questions. Cell didn't sound mocking or amused at her current state. Where usually when they spoke he wore at least a twitch of a smirk, was now a strangely concentrated expression she couldn't quite read.

"I'm... Fine." Calliope answered carefully, leaving out how hungover she felt at the moment. She tried not to think about how the symptoms of concussion overlapped with over-indulgence in this case. She simply wanted to go back to bed.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Yes, I do."

"No, Calliope, I need you to _tell me_ where you are." Still holding a serious tone, Cell continued after she maintained a dubious look at him. "I'm trying to assess whether or not you have a brain injury."

"I'm pretty sure it's not that serious." She mumbled this with a half-chuckle before having another long drink of water. When Cell simply kept staring at her, with a look that told her he wasn't going to let the subject go, Calliope sighed internally. The sooner she could satisfy his oddly out of character demands, the sooner she could go back to bed. Hopefully. She had to take a deep breath and fight through the mental fog to piece together the words. "Fine, fine, okay. We're in Nicky Town, in my apartment- for some reason- and, as you can see, I am conscious, and I am responsive. I don't have any ringing in my ears or visual anomalies. Aside from a hangover, _I'm fine_."

For barely a second, she thought Cell might have accepted that answer. Calliope didn't have time to react when he reached across the kitchen island, gripped her chin, and pulled her in closer over the kitchen island. She managed a weak squeak of surprise, her hands braced on the countertop, and at that moment felt unable to respond.

She couldn't quite pull herself to look anywhere but Cell's gaze, which didn't feel threatening, but rather intensely scrutinizing. It took her muddled brain a handful of moments, watching as his eyes almost imperceptibly flick between focusing on each of her eyes, to realize what he was doing. Was Cell trying to examine her pupils?

"Um..." What was there to even say in this situation? Calliope didn't usually accept medical attention unless absolutely necessary. Much less well-known mass murdering psychopaths without medical licenses. She also didn't usually injure herself to the point of needing medical intervention in the first place.

Cell held her like this for a tense, awkward minute before letting her go and leaning back. He regarded her and then spoke in the kind of way that reminded her of a disappointed parent, "Calliope, I am _concerned_ for you."

She didn't answer right away and briefly considered abandoning the conversation to return to bed- which was singing a sweet siren song to draw her back under the covers. When Calliope failed to reply, save for arching an eyebrow to go along with her perplexed stare, Cell continued.

"Last night you exhibited a variety of behavior that, while on the surface may merely seem foolish and immature, make me genuinely worry about your well-being. I'm sure you may not recognize it now, as you appear to still be _recovering_ from your revelry, but last night could have been much worse." At this point, Cell pointed at her and somehow sounded more serious. "You getting _falling down drunk_ , alone, in an area where there is very literally no one around for miles to come to your aid, could have gone very badly."

Was this actually happening, she wondered.

Calliope still didn't respond. Instead, she felt herself staring back with an increasingly curious if confused, gaze. The gears of her mind ground to a near stop. What was Cell hoping to hear from her? More importantly, what was he doing worried about her well being? After everything he had put her through, all the people he had killed, this lecture simply didn't line up.

"Calliope, you could have gotten yourself _killed_. Do you have any idea how-"

"Oh, uh-uh." Calliope cut in suddenly, with a dismissive wave of her hands. Today was not the day she was going to sit and listen to the rest of this lecture. Across from her Cell's face fell in sudden confusion. She took up her glass of water and began making her way back towards her bedroom while shaking her head.

"Where are you going?" Cell spoke up, and he sounded more than a little annoyed at the sudden curtailment to their 'conversation'.

Calliope didn't stop her slower-than-normal walk back to her room, but answered over her shoulder, "Back to bed, because I am not having this conversation."

"... Fatigue can be a symptom of a concussion, you know."

Calliope wanted to point out that her symptoms were easily explained by her over-indulgence in white wine, and that Cell was not a qualified medical professional to provide a diagnosis one way or the other. Instead, she grumbled something that wasn't quite words in response.

She had almost made it to the hall, safely out of the all-too-bright living room with her unexpected guest- who Calliope hoped in the back of her mind would take the hint and leave- when a jarring noise gave a sharp note of pain to her head. Wincing a the phone's ring, she shuffled back a few paces to its place on the wall, picked it up, and declined the call half-way through the third ring.

"Are you sure you don't want to take that call?" Behind her Cell was speak again, but this time the concern was replaced with all-too-familiar teasing. "It might be your _Corporate Overlord_ trying to reach you again."

Several seconds passed as she processed this statement, and Calliope slowly turned back to Cell, who had taken a more casual pose to lean with his back to her countertop, once again wearing that stupid goddamn smirk. Her 'Corporate Overlord'? ' _Again_ '? That was not a nickname she would tell anyone about outside of her professional circle. She looked back at the phone and began fumbling with the buttons to try and show the last numbers that had called it. The phone rang in her hands again before she could find the 'missed calls'. This time she didn't wait to answer.

"Hello?" She greeted, forgetting herself, and immediately winced afterward. Usually, Calliope was better about greeting any phone call in a more professional way.

" _Cali, baby girl, there you are!_ " The cool voice on the other end of the line made her internally groan. " _It sounded like you had a fun night. Your boyfriend told me to call you back in the morning. That you were indisposed_." This last part was said with a particular scandalous emphasis.

"... Boyfriend?" Calliope blinked, bewildered and wondering where he got that particular idea from. She frowned, looked back to Cell who's smile had widened at that point, and answered quickly. "That wasn't my boyfriend."

" _Ah, just a booty call then? Breaking you off a piece of a little something-something? Ha, I never figured you for the type, but then again all you strictly-professional women tend to be freaks behind closed doors, eh?_ " The further her talked, the more tightly coiled Calliope felt. Any relief she had found in wine the previous night was becoming undone.

With her attention split between glaring at her guest, listening to her 'corporate overlord', and trying to mentally calm herself from the morning's stresses- her left eye gave a twitch. The muscles spasmed, once every few seconds to Calliope's newfound frustration. She turned away from Cell, unable to bare looking at him at the moment. Pressing a palm to the eye, she attempted to will it to stillness and took a deep breath.

She would not be losing her composure. Not today. Not with Cell's present company. Not with this hangover. Not. Today.

"Lorenzo. Was there something I could help you with?" She managed to find her calm center, took her hand from her eye.

" _Oo, I got myself in trouble! Alright, alright, I'll behave. Though I am hurt that you didn't think of me when you needed a little something-something_ -" The man never knew when to shut up.

" _Lorenzo_ ," Calliope repeated firmly, cutting him off.

" _Joking! You know how I like to play, Cali._ " On the line, Lorenzo laughed before he spoke again. He continued with his usual way of sounding amused. " _But in all seriousness. You know Aiden Belfast is getting the Ethics Committee to investigate you, right?_ "

"I am aware." Of course, the parent company Minnows BioSolutions was beholden to would have heard. Calliope realized that it was weird that he hadn't reached out to her sooner. Then again Lorenzo Prescott was an idiot and a playboy, and it was entirely possible he was busy playing golf instead of tending to his executive duties.

" _Yeah, I was sent a very long email about how you've, ah, shit what was the wording. That you are 'perhaps not in full possession of your faculties' and possible 'clandestine relations with dangerous individuals'? I mean seriously, what the fuck, if the dude thinks you're crazy he should just say so._ " A sound like engines in the background kicked up, and it would surprise Calliope in the least if he was making the call from his private transportation on some private island. Lorenzo spoke louder, but still worryingly casual over the line, " _Anyway, they're having a meeting about that in Central this morning. You're still hanging in Nicky Town, right?_ "

"... Um." It was too early in the morning for her to have to lie to Corporate. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose and tried to get her brain to come up with something that sounded plausible. "Well, about that-"

" _-Cali. Sugar-lumps. Kitten tits. Shh. Hush._ " This time Lorenzo cut her off, in the playfully sarcastic way he specialized in. No matter what he said, he always sounded the part of a rich kid talking down to those he considered beneath him. He continued, and it was like a flip was switched, as he suddenly regarded Calliope with a voice like ice. " _Shut your face. You know what I did last night instead of enjoying big-tittied strippers? I was trying to track you down because according to Aiden you keep going fuckin' AWOL. You weren't picking up your line. The Central City lab didn't know where you were, so they referred me to the goat farm. The weird dude at the farm didn't know where you were, but referred me to your Cat-program-thing, which- spoiler alert- also didn't know where you were! It gave me a few numbers to fuckin' try, and guess which one I'm talking to you on? Huh? The one that's listed as your goddamn apartment in Suppose-to-be-evacuated-or-some-bullshit Nicky Town._ "

Lorenzo paused long enough to take a breath after making his point. The ice in his tone melted to friendly sarcasm. " _So let's try this one more time. Are you still in Nicky Town?_ "

"... I am." Calliope internally cringed to admit this fact. It shouldn't have been surprising that HoloCat, of all things, was the one to give up her position. Still, she couldn't help but feel disappointed.

" _Cool, cool. You up for a road trip?_ "

"My presence isn't required at the meeting this morning. I was going to be-"

" _Fuck all that, baby girl. Are you really going to let them hold a whole meeting of talking shit about you, and not show up and give them a piece of your mind? Fuck. That. Be ready to go in an hour, I'll pick you up. You still at that apartment on 2nd street?_ "

"I am, but, Lorenzo, that's really not necessary."

" _Calliope, remind me again, who's the boss here? Me. I am. So, you're going to get your ass dressed, have some coffee, and be ready to go in an hour._ "

"...Okay. I will see you then." Calliope nodded in acknowledgment. Lorenzo disconnected the line without another word, thankfully. She replaced the phone on the wall and took another deep breath to get herself together. When she turned around, intent on making a clearer attempt at kicking Cell out, and fully prepared to face whatever smarmy quips he would throw her way, she paused. He wasn't smirking in some kind of victory anymore but was looking at her with that oddly concerned face again. "... What?"

"Do you often let him talk to you like that?" Cell sounded like he was genuine with his question. Calliope didn't recognize anything mocking, and somehow that made her feel more uncomfortable.

It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable having Cell there in the first place, she realized. Calliope felt fairly certain he didn't intend to cause her harm- aside from the stress of him existing as he was. But this new interest in her well-being was something she wasn't sure how to handle.

"... How much of that did you hear...?" She frowned, not liking the idea of anyone, much less her current guest eavesdropping on her conversation. Lorenzo was well-known for speaking loudly, and Calliope was not kicking herself for not taking the call into another room.

"All of it." When Calliope quirked an eyebrow up in silent question, Cell continued, with a hint of a smile returning. "I have _exceptional hearing_. How do you think I keep pinpointing all those drones you send after me? "

"... Right. Of course." She rolled her eyes initially. "When did you talk to Lorenzo?"

"Last night, you were asleep." Not to mention blackout drunk, Calliope thought. She was caught off guard when Cell continued thoughtfully. "I didn't think you were one to suffer fools like him."

"Yeah, well... He's the CEO of the company that owns Minnows BioSolutions." Calliope started with a sigh. She took a moment to pick up her glass of water again and went to the last cabinet near the refrigerator. In the cabinet, next to half-empty boxes of cereal she took out a bottle of aspirin and took a double dose to try and ease the ache of her head. "Research grants don't grow on trees, and lab equipment is very expensive."

Cell hummed a sound of acknowledgment, but other than turning to keep watching her, made no further move. For an all-too-long moment, Calliope pointed a look to him, then the front door, and then back at Cell. She forced a polite smile and rubbed at her temple where the ache hadn't eased yet.

"Okay. Well. Apparently, I have a meeting to get ready for." A meeting which dealt with disciplinary actions regarding herself, no less. One she hadn't been notified about, except by Jay. Calliope had no idea what she was even supposed to say at this thing, or why Lorenzo wanted to drag her into it. What could be said that could defend her behavior of late?

"Of course. You probably want to take a shower, and maybe change into something not covered in blood." Cell returned her smile but glanced down at the spot on her tank top that had a splattering of dried blood on it.

"Yeah, exactly, mm-hmm... So. I appreciate you patching me up, and seeing me home safely. I know I was probably difficult to deal with last night." She may not have remembered much of the previous night beyond calling Cell and laughing to herself, but she had a feeling it had been embarrassing.

"Well, I wouldn't say it was a necessarily unpleasant way to spend the evening." Cell practically cut her off at this point, and again sounded rather amused at her expense. "You were in a rather good mood most of the night, which was a nice change of pace. Although you did keep reminding me that I'm not your supervisor, for some reason."

"... Yeah, that's because you're _not_ my supervisor." Calliope set her glass of water off to the side and tried to brush her hair back into place. She blew a sigh through her nose, not necessarily enjoyed the prospect of having to spell things out, and spoke up a little more firmly. "Anyway, Cell, as you can see, I'm fine, and I think its time you go."

Still, with that bemused smile plastered on his face, Cell took a moment to lean with an elbow on the counter top. "Are you going to make me?"

"Oh, we're doing this again today?" Calliope couldn't be surprised and didn't have the energy to be completely outraged. She could still manage being miffed. "Okay. I think you know I can't make you, which is why I'm _asking_ you to go."

"Ah. Well then, I'm going to politely decline." Cell offered a slight shrug with his response but otherwise made no further movement.

"... That's... No, that's not..." Calliope wanted to be more frustrated. She wanted to point out how Cell was acting like an immature ass. She wanted to point out that ignoring personal boundaries like this was only going to make her resent him further. But couldn't bring herself to. There was simply no motivation in her for this discussion. Instead, with her professional smile back in place, and shaking her head, she once again started walking out of the kitchen. "Actually, you know what, I'm not doing this today."

"Not doing what-" She just caught the smile slip of Cell's face on her way out. Calliope let the bathroom door closing, perhaps a little harder than intended, complete her answer.

She had a meeting to prepare for, where it was entirely likely she would be forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation or risk being forced out of her position. Hell, it was possible she would be asked to resign outright. The thought made her sag suddenly, Calliope felt dazed at the realization, and she found herself leaning with her hands against the bathroom sink for a few long seconds.

Calliope looked up to stare at herself in the mirror, at the current mess that reflected back at her. She was legitimately difficult to look at; appearing tired, haggard even, her dark hair had a cowlick that made it look particularly wild on one side. Between the shame and hangover, she felt she could sleep for another hour or five. Last night had seen her at, perhaps, her most embarrassing. Worse than when that Kabuki article came out. _And she had invited Cell over for a front row seat to it_.

Maybe Belfast was right.

Maybe she was crazy.

Shit.

That particular train of thought was derailed when she looked closer at the spot on her forehead that held an area of bruising, covered by the skin-toned adhesive bandage her lab kept in stock. Calliope carefully peeled it away to get a better look at her apparent head injury. It did not appear to be so deep or great to cause much concern. The numerous cuts appeared well-scabbed over, and the skin around it otherwise clean- aside from the bruising. She found the idea that Cell had actually taken the time to look after her wounds, and bandage them properly, absurd.

There was a flicker of memory, of herself, so distressed at the sight of blood on her hand. Cell was there, speaking softly to her, and while she couldn't quite remember what he said, he had acted as a calming influence. Her face flushed warm with blood, and Calliope cringed to herself at the thought.

She acted out the rest of her normal morning routine with a certain numbness, while her mind was preoccupied. Her teeth got brushed, and her hair brushed free of knots before standing under a warm stream of water that helped to dull the ache in her head. There were a few minutes, Calliope thought, a few minutes to stand quietly, with the water flowing over her ears to offer a measure of peace. Then she could scrub herself clean, get dressed, mentally prepare something to say at the upcoming meeting. If there was time, and her stomach could handle it, she could grab some coffee.

"I don't think you going to this meeting is a good idea." The sudden voice speaking over the rushing water startled Calliope, and she squeaked with surprise, squeezing the shampoo bottle hard enough to squirt a stream of shampoo against the shower's frosted glass door.

It felt like a long moment that she stood still, and the bathroom felt awkwardly quiet despite the running shower. Calliope bit her tongue and felt the bottom lid of her eye twitching begin to twitch again.

Surely Cell didn't expect her to carry on a conversation now, of all times, did he?

She whipped around, and opened the door enough to poke just her head out, her hair still wet and covered in shampoo suds. Just as she thought, there was Cell, leaned against the sink with his arms crossed looking thoughtful. He did look over to her, with a neutral expression that Calliope couldn't quite read.

For a moment, she waited to see if Cell would explain himself. When he didn't, Calliope found she sounded incredulous. " _Seriously?_ "

"Yes, seriously." Cell stared back at her with a frown, as if it was obvious. "Clearly the situation at your lab is causing you a great deal of stress. Which, if last night's display was any kind of indication, you don't appear to be managing very well at the moment."

"That's-What-No-That's not what I was talking about." She swiped at the suds running down her face to keep it out of her eyes. Biting her tongue, Calliope managed to avoid mentioning that Cell himself was currently the greatest cause of her stress recently.

"No?" He looked to give a moment's thought before shrugging. "Well, it's what I'm talking about."

"Cell. What are you doing _in my bathroom?_ " Calliope said, much sterner, in a voice she usually reserved for disciplining her employees. It was tempting to throw something in the shower at Cell's stupid head with that stupid surprised look. The renewed ache in her head made her focus too fuzzy for such a physical activity.

"You may have a concussion, and a wet, soapy shower is a sure way for you to slip and fracture your skull." While she probably could have guessed Cell's excuse would be something along this line but hadn't expected it to be delivered so coldly.

Calliope likely would have maintained her glare, and possibly the current argument, if she didn't feel the minutes ticking down. Instead, she huffed a breath, closed the shower door with a hard shove, and attempted to resume her shower. She still needed to get dressed, apply an acceptable amount of make-up, emotionally prepare for seeing her colleagues again. Not to mention try to think of something to say that wouldn't make her sound insane.

"I'm serious, Calliope. As fun as last night was, I don't look forward to the potential prospect of having to babysit you again." Cell said this with a similar condescending way and afterward muttered partially to himself. "You kept going on about becoming a stand-up comedian. It was ridiculous."

"-I was drunk." Calliope raised her voice over the shower's water.

The idea _was_ ridiculous, she had to agree.

"Well, apparently you also discovered the gene for shyness." She had finished washing out her hair and started vigorously scrubbing her skin off when she caught on to the teasing in Cell's tone. Admittedly she was left bewildered. Last night she had been in no state to do research of any kind. "You would have found it sooner, but it was hiding behind two other genes."

Calliope had paused in scrubbing herself before it clicked. "... That's supposed to be a joke." It was humor that didn't hold up in the light of day.

"It is."

"It's not a good joke."

"It's not. But you were adamant that you were funny." Cell actually chuckled with his response. He seemed an odd mix of delighted and yet disappointed at everything that had happened before.

"I was also very drunk." As humiliating as it was to have to defend, Calliope couldn't help but reiterate this important fact of her impairment from the last night. Two bottles of wine made for a night of bad decisions, and a tedious morning.

She resumed scrubbing, harder now with a renewed frustration bubbling up.

"Well, _'in vino veritas'_ , as they say. Now, I'd like to think that there was something to the idea. Clearly, the strain of your current work situation makes you want to escape, so you started planning out a new career path. It _does_ makes a weird kind of sense. Sort of a subconscious bid for relief."

"Or, and this is just a guess, I was drunk and didn't have any idea what I was talking about." Calliope cut in with this comment when it sounded clear that Cell was trying to make some deeper point. He was reading into last night too much.

"Well, I don't know about that. Last night you seemed to be quite candid, and at least occasionally lucid. You went on at length about how Belfast wants you to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, how your career was as good as doomed and made your attraction to me _quite_ well known." Cell spoke this last part with a sort of chuckle as if he was able to find some humor in the disastrous evening.

"What?" Calliope had been half-listening, thinking more on what exactly she could wear that would convey the right amount of professionalism for the meeting she would be crashing for the clothes she kept at her apartment. She didn't quite catch on to everything Cell was saying for several seconds, but realized the words didn't make sense.

She probably misheard him, was her first thought.

"Granted I can't fault you for taste- I mean I am a perfect being, after all-"

"What." She muttered, mostly to herself.

"-I am surprised that I didn't see this coming."

"... _What_." Her next thought was, clearly, Cell must have misinterpreted last night's happy-go-lucky, over-sharing drunk shenanigans. How much time was there until Lorenzo arrived?

"Calliope, are you alright in there? You keep repeating yourself." She didn't reply at first, except to groan. But having finished rinsing the soap off herself, she did open the door enough to stick an upturned hand out of the shower. "Hmm?"

Not today, she reminded herself.

"If you're going to be in my bathroom, can you at least hand me a towel?" Calliope did her best to be calm as she asked this- for the sake of her blood pressure. Thankfully, instead of more guff about a possibly-non-existent brain injury, she received a standard, fluffy towel in her hand.

"You really don't remember much of last night, do you? Well, I suppose you were-"

While rubbing at her hair to wick away any excess moisture before drying the rest of herself, Calliope took the opportunity to cut him off. "- _Cell_. I am sure you have plenty of entertaining anecdotes about last night, but right now, I'm not having any further conversation until I've put some clothes on. If you could go wait in the living room, that would be, just, super great."

Once again there was an awkward quiet, and Calliope had wrapped herself in the towel on the chance Cell refused to leave.

"... Fine." Cell finally responded. Without the shower, she could clearly hear the door open, and the final quip offered before it clicked closed. "If you manage to hurt yourself, I'm not going to bandage you up again."

Calliope found herself able to breathe a bit easier, and a spot of tension between her shoulders that she hadn't realized had knotted up eased. She finished drying herself and poked her head out of the shower to check that she was alone. When she was satisfied that Cell had left her alone as requested, she stepped out to attempt to finish getting ready.

After blow-drying her hair to an acceptable condition, Calliope left out the other door that went directly to her bedroom, and made sure that both doors were closed- and locked- as well. For whatever good locking the door would do, she thought. She figured that an unlocked door likely posed an invitation for Cell to invite himself in if he saw fit.

Not that locking the doors at her lab had made a difference, but she tried not to think about that.

For several long minutes, she was left standing before her closet, with a furrowed brow at the choices she had available to her. Calliope was only at her apartment on the weekend and rare evenings she absolutely couldn't stand being at the lab. She did not keep many changes of clothes here that would qualify as office-attire. Eventually, after a brief consideration of going into the meeting in jeans and a comfortably worn t-shirt, she settled on a simple, if somewhat snug, black dress. It cut just above the knee, without frills, with a neckline cutting just below her collar bone. Usually, she had only worn it to professional conferences and office parties.

She applied enough concealer to mask the worst of the bruising on her forehead. A little bit more make up finished the illusion that she was well-rested- a touch of red lip stain, and a thin application of eyeliner Aside from a few strands to cover the cuts, she swept the rest of her hair up secured in a bun on her head. When she looked in the mirror, Calliope felt satisfied with how she appeared.

She looked closer to her regular self if a bit more dolled up than usual. The important thing, to her, was that she appeared collected, composed, and absolutely, 100%, not crazy.

The time read half-past the hour on the clock near her bed, and it was likely Lorenzo would be arriving any minute now. They would probably arrive at the auxiliary lab in time to interrupt the meeting, which ideally would not last more than an hour. Whether or not they would stay for the full duration, Calliope was unsure.

There were just a few last minute things she tried to gather up; a back-up purse and made sure to carry sunglasses, extra aspirin, a small taser- she didn't think she would feel secure without it. Even if Cell wasn't a threat to her personally, she wasn't convinced there weren't threats elsewhere. The way this week had been going, Calliope was willing to acknowledge that she was shaken. She slipped on a pair of heels and took herself back towards the living room.

Calliope stopped near the kitchen island, briefly wondering where she had put her HoloCat before remembering that, of course, she must have left it in the lab. She could retrieve it later, after the meeting, as she had planned on returning to Nicky Town after the meeting. The rest of her day was planned out in her head; Meeting, then back to Nicky Town, call Aunt Violet to see how she was doing, make sure nothing else needed her attention, and then back to bed. Or, more likely, back to sleep on the couch in her office. These thoughts and plans flitted through her mind at a frenzied pace, and Calliope realized she had jumped the gun on the rest of her day without dealing with her guest, who had been curiously watching her since she returned to the room.

"Well well, look at this." Cell had been staring at her from near the window, where he had been she first stumbled into the kitchen. Now however he was smirking again, and his eyes swept her up and down in a way that left her cringing internally. "You clean up nicely, Calliope."

"... Thank you." Calliope responded evenly while wondering if Cell was even capable of smiling without looking sinister to some degree. She decided it wasn't worth mentioning that this was the first time he was seeing her after she had had a good night's sleep- or as close to one as she had gotten recently- with time enough to tidy herself up to appear even remotely put together. Just accept the compliment, she told herself.

Somehow that brought up more questions, in her mind, about last night then she wanted to be answered. Calliope decided to put them, and Cell's obvious misunderstanding to bed.

"So, I'm not really sure what I said last night that might have made you think my feelings for you are anything more than... Tenuous, at best, but I think they're well explained by the bottle of wine-"

"Two, actually. You definitely drank almost all of two bottles of wine." Cell had cut in before she could get to the 'get out of my apartment I have a meeting to go to' part, and Calliope had started to notice that there was a certain smug expression growing on his face. "And it wasn't just last night. You see, as I don't require sleep, I had quite a lot of time to think about this."

At this point, Cell had completely turned from the window and approached her at a steady pace. The closer he got, the more the hairs on her neck stood on end, and Calliope felt she might be in some sort of danger. "Now I'm thinking more broadly than last night and how, out of everyone you could have drunk-dialed and yelled terrible jokes at, you called me, or how you kissed me-without prompting, mind you."

Calliope squinted in silent question and would have spoken up if she wasn't trying desperately to recall the previous evening. _When the Hell did she kissed him_? More importantly, what had drunk-Calliope been thinking? Her face flushed with embarrassment, and the now-familiar feeling of regret crept back. As he got closer, she found herself taking steps back to try and keep Cell at arm's distance, before bumping into the island counter. It was a fight to keep her face neutral, especially when Cell had cornered her, as he placed a hand to either side of her on the counter and leaned closer in.

"I can't help but see a pattern emerging," Cell was clearly having a good time making his point. He eyed her up like a wolf that trapped a rabbit. "Because despite all those verbal lashings you keep giving me, you can't seem to get enough of me."

Calliope could just about kick herself for everything she had done up to the point that could have been misconstrued as interest. How stupid had she been in her handling of this? She should have run when she had a chance.

"I-I stand by my previous statements." That she was drunk, as that was a better explanation that she had clearly lost her mind. Calliope tried to speak evenly, trying to keep her voice from betraying how uneasy she felt.

"Of course you do. You don't remember, you were two bottles deep and split your head open." Cell took a moment to chuckle while looming over her. For just a split second he looked thoughtfully down at her, before flashing a toothy grin that looked more threatening than anything. Suddenly he caught her about the waist with both hands, and in a firm grip gingerly lifted Calliope to sit her on the countertop. "Let's try to jog your memory."

"I think there's been a misunderstanding-!" Calliope barely managed to get a few words out before she was cut off as Cell practically pounced on her with a rough kiss, his eyes slipping closed. A hand larger than her own curled around the side of her neck to weave into her hair while the other slipped around her waist to pull her closer. She blinked with shock, not quite able to bring herself to react for several long seconds. Somewhere in the far back of her mind, she wondered if she shouldn't be panicking more.

Cell's lips and hands were feverishly warm against hers, and there was a slight tingle on Calliope's skin where he touched her that felt electric. When his throat rumbled with a sound between a growl and a purr, she felt her wits snap back into place. Her hands found their way to Cell's chest, and surprisingly it didn't take much effort to push him away from her.

Calliope had to say something. "... Um..." She had to something of some kind of substance. Perhaps chide Cell about sexual assault and the definition of personal boundaries. But her tongue felt like a dumb, limp thing in this situation, and she needed a moment to catch her breath. The moment dragged on, she still had her hands on his chest and his fingers were still woven in her hair, with sharp nails gently running against her scalp.

"You know, I half-expected you to slap me for doing that." Cell spoke up when she couldn't quite come up with anything further to say, with a warm, husky voice.

"Yes. Well." That would have been a reasonable reaction, Calliope realized. She blinked, and pulled her hands back, before gathering herself and attempted to sound stern. "If you do that again I absolutely will."

"Hmm, is that a promise?" Cell teased softly, with a knowing smile. He began leaning back in towards her as if to test this, the hand in her hair pulling her in closer at the same time. Calliope's breath hitched in her throat as she mentally prepared to follow through on slapping Cell with all her strength when there was a sudden pounding on the door. Cell had stopped short, and for a tense second stayed just inches from her face, with their eyes locked on one another. When he did pull away, it was with an annoyed glare pointed towards the front door.

" _Cali_! Hey!" Perhaps a few minutes late, it was the sound of Lorenzo banging on the door again. "Get off your dude's dick, we got a meeting to crash!"

"He really is a disgusting little man." Cell sneered, still glaring towards the door, but offered a hand out to help Calliope off the counter. She sighed to herself, took his hand to aid in slipping off the counter, and darted towards the door. It had been her hope to have kicked Cell out of the apartment before Lorenzo made it there.

"Yes, thank you, I know." She muttered before she got to the door. Calliope made an effort to press her hair back into place, not needing to give her 'corporate overlord' any ammunition to use in conjectures about her personal life. It would have been embarrassing enough without having a literal killer in her home, and all the implications Lorenzo would draw from that.

'Wait, _shit_ ', Calliope thought to herself and whirled back around from the door to stalk back to Cell, pointed a commanding finger at him and whispered harshly up to him. "Cell, I need you to not-" She turned around for a brief moment to yell towards the door, which now had a continuous stream of knocks coming from it. " _Lorenzo_! I'm coming! Stop knocking!- I need you to just, I don't know, stay here, and maybe don't cause any further incidents that could potentially be used against me, okay? Please?"

Cell looked from Calliope's finger, then back to her, with an expression that was unreadable. He looked to possibly be weighing options for just a second longer than made Calliope comfortable. With a sigh and slight roll of his eyes, he put his hands up finally said, as if barely willing to humor

her, "Fine, fine, _I'll behave_."

"... Okay then." Calliope nodded once and then whirled back to get back to the front door. She unlocked it, and pulled it open to find, as she expected, Lorenzo on the other side.

"Cali, baby, there you are!" Lorenzo greeted her at once, in the ever-chipper way he was often known for. He didn't wait for her to return the greeting before making a show of grabbing her shoulders and kissing her on both cheeks. This was a man who was well-tanned, lean-muscled and dressed in a fine suit. As was normally the case when Calliope saw him, the dress shirt under the jacket was untucked, without a tie, and the top few buttons left undone. Today he was wearing large aviator sunglasses, and his sandy hair was slick back as usual. "Aw, my favorite nerd!"

"You know, I really don't have to be at this meeting," Calliope said this, and once again thought of how embarrassing it was going to be to have to show up and interrupt this thing. She could be in bed. The pillows surely wouldn't judge her like her colleagues certainly were prepared to do.

"Yeah, but fuck that, we're going." Lorenzo waved off her concerns, and looked like he was about to say something else before stopping, and staring off next to where Calliope stood with a sudden confusion.

Calliope glanced over and had to bite the curse words brewing on her tongue as she eyed Cell, who stood next to her, offering her the purse she had dropped, but with a piercing gaze pinned on Lorenzo. She looked between the two, took her purse and pulled the strap onto her shoulder.

Play it cool, Calliope told herself. She could handle this situation delicately. Gesturing between the two of them and tried to sound as if this was a casual introduction, with nothing out of the ordinary going on. "Right, Cell this is Lorenzo, CEO of the company that owns my lab. Lorenzo this is Cell, you... might remember him from..." She paused to think of a not-crazy way of saying 'the guy who slaughtered thousands and then boasted about it on live television'. "The news."

Perking up immediately, Lorenzo tipped his sunglasses down far enough on his nose to peer up at Cell over the top of the rims. "Oh shit, the actor?"

Calliope needed to take a moment to make sure she had heard Lorenzo correctly when she glanced up at Cell to see his face twisted with confusion, saw that he did too.

"I'm sorry, _the what?_ " Cell was the first one to recover enough to speak and sounded bewildered. He stared back at Lorenzo as if he was a madman.

"The thing on the news? That was a viral marketing stunt, right? I could have sworn that I heard that somewhere. I gotta say, other than the fighting tournament part, the whole narrative didn't make a lot of sense." Appearing either oblivious to the looks he was getting, or misunderstanding them completely, Lorenzo kept talking. "Oh! That's why you guys are out here in Nicky Town, avoiding the general public? Probably got a whole production crew set up somewhere around here, right?"

While listening to Lorenzo, Calliope had been glancing between him and Cell- who appeared to be gradually seething as the other spoke. His eyes had started to narrow, and he was beginning to exude an absolutely deadly presence.

"You know, maybe I should _show you_ what I was talking about on that broadcast." When Cell said this, in a way that chilled her to the bone, Calliope reached up to place a hand on his arm. His head snapped down to look at her, and she pointed a meaningful gaze at him, with an eyebrow crooked upwards. The look was meant to convey something along the lines of 'What did we just talk about? You said you would behave. It is too early in the morning-and I am too hungover- to deal with you killing someone outside my front door. No.' This wasn't something she wanted to say out loud, it seemed inappropriate with Lorenzo right there.

" _Let. It. Go_." Calliope whispered under her breath, soft enough that only Cell could hear her. She looked back to Lorenzo with a polite smile and tried to affect a casual tone. "I believe we have a meeting to get to. So, Cell, I will see you tomorrow. Lorenzo and I need to get going."

Luckily, Cell seemed to get her intent, and even luckier that he relented after a moment. He took a deep breath, appearing to try and calm himself. "... Fine." Directing his attention back to Lorenzo, he spoke with a slight smirk and iced tone. "Another time, then."

Breaking his death-glare at Lorenzo, Cell did look back to Calliope with a smile that left her insides feeling borderline queasy. He inclined his head to her in a nod, but took his leave from there, walking away from the apartment as Lorenzo slipped out of the way.

Calliope wondered what the Hell was becoming of her life.

Lorenzo, who had been watching Cell leave over the top of his sunglasses with a crooked smile, appeared unperturbed. He didn't seem to grasp that he had just been in danger and sounded amused. "He seems nice. Does he always stay so in character?"

Calliope stared at Lorenzo but decided that it wasn't worth explaining. Not today. She retrieved the sunglasses from her purse and slipped them on. "... Come on, Lorenzo. We're late enough, as is."


	17. When it Rains it Pours

Chapter 16: When it Rains it Pours

* * *

~Somewhere in the Sky~

Calliope spent most of the flight back to Central City thus far staring at Lorenzo and tried to figure out if he really, truly thought Cell was an actor hired by some unnamed company for a marketing ploy. It was hard to tell with him. He never appeared to take anything seriously. For the moment, she felt it would be advantageous to allow him to think what he wanted. The alternative- that she had had a _slumber party_ with a psychotic mass murderer- seemed too embarrassing to bear.

Despite not necessarily wanting to recall the last night at all, bits of it were slowly trickling back to her. How brilliant the idea of abandoning her current career in favor of comedy seemed, trying to befriend that raccoon by throwing cookies at it- which wasn't entirely unsuccessful if she remembered correctly- and how Cell had seemed to be so surprisingly civil.

"I mean I get it. Dude's got great cheekbones, and if he's as built as that costume indicates a rockin' body." Lorenzo was in the middle of assuming too many things, and apparently trying to come up with a plan to deal with the meeting they were on the way to crash. He sat across from her in the private luxury airship, his knees spread apart as he lounged in the seat like a lazy house cat. "I think I also get why Belfast is so salty. Cali, you know I love you, right? In that platonic boss-nerd kind of way. You can't just have your boyfriend busting into restricted areas of the lab and doing his, ah, his act. It's inappropriate as Hell and disrupts people trying to work. You get that, right?"

Calliope had kept her sunglasses on, the dimming effect on the light helped her eyes relax. They also helped her eye whenever she needed to roll her eyes at something Lorenzo said.

"He's still not my boyfriend." Calliope calmly corrected. Even though her whole body had a lingering exhausted ache, she sat with her back straight, one knee crossed over the other. The imported gourmet coffee served on the flight helped stave off the worst of it, but she still looked forward to being able to get back to Nicky Town and rest.

"Your fuck buddy then, right, whatever." Lorenzo waved off the detail as if it didn't matter one way or another to him. "Don't get me wrong, I think he's entertaining as Hell. The whole announcement on the news, just busting out on live TV like that, it was fucking scary. I thought that shit was real."

Calliope wasn't comfortable having anyone know that Cell was at her apartment, alone with her, for any length of time. It was even worse as Lorenzo knew that he was there. All night. And assumed, at least in her opinion, the worst. She was outright trying her best not to think about that morning in her apartment.

What the hell had Cell been doing kissing her like that? It must have been some kind of game to get inside her head.

"Is that the only reason you think Belfast is calling me out like this and going to all this trouble?" She asked this with some obvious skepticism. What all had Belfast told corporate?

"He didn't go into detail about it. Mentioned that Cell showed up at the lab, scared some of the low-level nerds, was asking where you were, then just stormed right the fuck off. Some other stuff about how you may or may not be mentally unfit for your position." As he talked, Lorenzo sounded bored with the topic. He had leaned his head back as if to try and get comfortable and take a nap. But he kept talking, now pointing a finger at Calliope.

"Its fine, you'll go in there, you'll apologize, try to explain yourself- but don't take any more of their shit. If you said some stuff to Aiden that makes you sound like you're fucking crazy, you deny it. Deny everything that you can, okay? He doesn't have any proof of anything, right? Cause if not we can make it a case of he-said-she-said."

"Well... Belfast had a building full of witnesses when Cell dropped by..." Across from her Lorenzo snorted a chuckle and waved off this particular concern. Right, Calliope reminded herself, he didn't think Cell was a credible threat. Just an actor. At some point, she would have to look up that broadcast claiming he was apart of a viral marketing ploy.

As far as she knew, Belfast hadn't talked to anyone else about what they had spoken of. Aside from a general claim calling her mental health into question, with the intention of investigating herself and her recent activities. It was a goddamn mess.

For a moment Calliope felt completely overwhelmed, almost claustrophobic. She found herself staring blankly at a spot near Lorenzo's head. This was too much. All of it. She had missed her opportunity to avoid all this. She didn't know how she was going to look her colleagues in the eyes. How the Hell was she supposed to hold any future conversation with Cell after he had kissed her like that this morning?

She could have been an accountant.

"Cali. Hey! Are you listening to me?" She blinked and realized that Lorenzo must have been talking for some time before trying to get her attention again. With her dark sunglasses, or perhaps because he liked the sound of his own voice, it must have taken him time to notice. He was looking at her expectantly over his own sunglasses and had moved to lean with his elbows on his knees.

"Hm? Yeah." Calliope nodded but had to force her mind back to their conversation.

She was fine, she told herself. Today she would keep it together.

"Cali. Girl. Hey." Lorenzo spoke with a certain command now, perhaps on some level picking up on her distress. He whipped off his sunglasses and tossed them into the empty seat next to him with a hard thud. Then, he was pointing a straight finger at her, "You're fucking golden. Okay?"

Calliope didn't think she would be able to explain to him how very much not okay this entire situation was likely to play out. She also didn't have the energy, or motivation, to attempt to explain everything clearly. Still, it was nice to hear someone other than herself assure her. With a small smile, she nodded once but otherwise didn't respond.

"I'm serious. We're going to see what we can do at this meeting." Easing himself back, Lorenzo picked his sunglasses back up and placed him back on his face. Once again leaning back, he resumed his cool, unaffected manner. "Worst case scenario, we move you to another lab. It'll be fine."

"Right..." Even if she was cleared of anything through this meeting or any subsequent investigations, Calliope wasn't sure how she could continue her work if everything else was to go back to normal. Unless Cell got himself killed or otherwise gave up the whole 'genocide' shtick there would be no way they could go back to 'business as usual'. She suddenly spoke up, "Lorenzo... I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone that you saw Cell... At my apartment... Or me, even, in Nicky Town."

"Sure, sure, no problem. Gotta keep up your whole professional women mystique. I get it. Plus your dude probably needs to keep up the whole 'scary-killer-cicada-bro' appearances."

"... Right. Yeah. Exactly." Calliope again decided it would be easier to leave it at that.

Their conversation fell into a lull, and across from her, Lorenzo appeared relaxed, possibly asleep. Once finished with the drink Calliope set her cup to the side and gazed out the window to watch the clouds pass. It was tempting to take as much of a nap as she could while they traveled, but she decided against it. If everything went smoothly she could be back in Nicky Town and sleeping on her couch within several hours.

"So how's your grandpa doing?" Lorenzo asked this so casually as if it wasn't another topic she'd rather avoid. If Belfast had been sparse on details, he possibly didn't mention any reputation-damaging information regarding Doctor Gero.

Calliope snapped her head to look back at him and was thankful that her sunglasses hid her worried eyes. Why would he think to ask that? She managed to set her face back in a neutral mask and answered as honestly as she could. "Oh, well, he passed away recently."

She braced herself for the sentiments and condolences, as even Lorenzo wasn't usually so tactless as to disrespect a relative's death. Instead, he had a reaction that Calliope found curious. He had stilled completely before wrenching himself straight back up. Again he pulled off his sunglasses to stare at her, with a shocked look.

"Passed away? Like... Like fucking dead?" Any trace of coolness Lorenzo usually spoke with had drained when he asked this.

"Yes, he..." Calliope was fully prepared to lie about her dear departed grandfather having suffered a stroke, but trailed off when she noticed that Lorenzo didn't appear to be paying attention to her anymore.

"Shit... Shit... God damn it..." He was muttering harshly to himself. Standing up Lorenzo had pulled a phone from his pocket and furiously typed at the screen. He paced back in forth in the roomy row, but briefly stopped to look at her again, with now clear agitation."Cali, your grandpa... He didn't happen to mention anything about..." Lorenzo looked at her as if she was meant to finish the rest of his sentence. When she didn't answer except to stare at him, he waved her off with a quick gesture. "Never mind, probably wouldn't have. God damned son of a bitch."

"Lorenzo, what's wrong?" Calliope had to try and maintain her composure to fight the nervous flutter growing in her chest. "What's going on?" And why was he suddenly so concerned about her grandfather?

Lorenzo didn't spare a glance her way at this point, instead was engrossed in his phone. His sudden change in attitude brought up more questions than anything. As Calliope had opened her mouth to say something further, he briskly paced towards the back of the ship, with minimal comment. "I have some calls to make."

Calliope watched him go as he went to what had to be the small, shuttered bathroom, and slam the door. She could barely hear him having a conversation, but not well enough to make out any words.

"What... What the fuck..." Calliope muttered to herself while rubbing the bridge of her nose. She needed more coffee.

Lorenzo spent most of the rest of the flight to Central City in the bathroom, presumably talking on his phone. Once they had arrived- landed on the roof of the lab, which technically wasn't a designated landing zone- Calliope had taken every opportunity to try and get any information out of him.

"Lorenzo, what exactly does my grandfather have anything to do with you or your business?" She asked, point blank, while they trotted down the stairs towards the main lab.

"Absolutely nothing. I don't even know why you would ask that." He did not sound very convincing like he was trying to play into his usual casual composure. Lorenzo wouldn't even look at her and had a strangely blank look on his face.

"Because you started acting quite anxious after I mentioned his death." Calliope continued to press without missing a beat. Something was going on, and she would not sit idly by as Lorenzo plotted and planned. If it had anything to do with Gero, it would likely end in disaster.

Before she could anticipate it Lorenzo had rounded on her, and with a shove and an arm over her neck had pressed her against the wall of the stairwell. He had a crazed look in his eyes and a snarl as if he was about to either threaten or enlighten her to something sinister. "You need to quit while you're ahead, Cali. It doesn't concern you."

For an instant, Calliope was worried what he might do, but the feeling faded as quickly as it came on, replaced with contempt. She had dealt with far worse lately. The past week had left no patience for this corporate playboy.

"Get off of me, you jackass," Calliope growled back and found a certain coldness sinking into herself. Seeing the sudden shift in demeanor, that his implied threats were brushed off, Lorenzo first looked surprised. He eased back from her and looked unsure. She straightened herself back up, her hands curled into fists at her side and pinned Lorenzo with a glare. "I don't know what associations you had with my grandfather. But we will talk about this later, and you are going to tell me everything."

"Cali... Its complicated..." Lorenzo sagged when he said this and leaned against the railing of the stairs. He smoothed his hair with his hand.

"I'm sure it is." Nothing in her life was at this point. Calliope couldn't help being more irritated at the additional complication that this presented.

"Your grandfather... There are things you don't know about him. The whole situation is... Its just _complicated_."

For a long moment, Calliope continued staring at Lorenzo, sizing him up, and attempted to speculate what he knew. It would probably be a safe guess that he knew her 'grandfather' as Doctor Gero, possibly the nature of his projects and research. How much he knew, exactly, she would need to figure out later. She turned away from him then, agreed with herself that she would let the matter go for now, and started down the stairs again. Over her shoulder, Calliope regarded him coolly, "Come on Lorenzo. You're the one who wanted to go to this meeting so badly."

They shared an awkward silence going down the rest of the steps, and into the ground floor where the main lab was set up. When they entered the lab, Calliope picked up on the odd air, a certain tension. There were far fewer researchers here than the last time she checked in, and they all turned to look at her as the pair walked through. Any conversation had ceased and Calliope tried to give a tight-lipped smile and a nod to cover how uncomfortable she suddenly felt.

It was as if she was a curiosity, out of place and unfamiliar to them. No one could seem to meet her eyes, and glanced away when she looked at them. Any bravado that Lorenzo's attempt at a pep talk had given her dried up. They crossed to a back hall, heading back to the conference room where Belfast would be holding his meeting.

At her side, Lorenzo's phone started ringing again, and Calliope watched him take himself to the side with a gesture to give him a moment.

"Shit," He turned back to her, then to the wall again, listening intently to the other line. While she couldn't pick out exactly what he was saying, Lorenzo did sound uncharacteristically serious. "Okay. Give me just a second." When he did turn back around, covering the phone with one hand, and again addressed Calliope. "I have to deal with this. I'll catch up with you after the meeting, okay?"

"Wait, what-" Calliope barely managed to get the words out before Lorenzo was walking away, further down the hall.

"Go kick their ass, baby girl!" He threw the mild encouragement over his shoulder with a thumbs up, before going back to his phone call.

"... Fuck." Calliope looked from Lorenzo's retreating back, to the heavy windowless door of the conference room. There was a note on the door, taped in place, that read 'Meeting In Progress' in large, black lettering. She took a deep breath, and tried to recall what Lorenzo had told her before, how she 'was fucking golden' and 'everything would work out'. There was not much substance in his assurances, but there wasn't much she could cling to at the moment.

She wasn't crazy, she reminded herself. She wasn't crazy, and she hadn't done anything wrong. This meeting was pointless.

Before Calliope could stop herself pushed her way through the door into the conference meeting. The room was long, windowless, with the same white walls as the other parts of the building. It was smaller compared to what they had at Nicky Town, the far wall taken up with a whiteboard, a large rectangular table where the department heads sat. When she entered they all turned to look at her, in varying degrees of surprise.

"Good morning, everyone." Calliope greeted and was disappointed at how meek she sounded.

"Merriweather, what the Hell?" Across the table, Belfast appeared to have been in the middle of reading through some paperwork but placed it face down to stare at her.

"Belfast." She nodded to the senior researcher but felt strangled by an awkward pause. Everyone was looking at her. "I... Know I wasn't invited to this meeting... But, I felt I needed to come and speak my piece..."

Calliope stood before the collection of her coworkers and felt like a stranger to these people. Belfast had a look of a tired, annoyed old man. Jay sat frozen but stared at her expectantly. Everyone else appeared equal parts confused and concerned, and looked at Calliope as if she was an escaped criminal.

She had to say something, she reminded herself. She wasn't crazy. Cell wasn't her fault. What right did they have to drag her name through the mud? She had to say something.

"I'm done. I resign." Calliope spoke suddenly, unable to remember what she was going to say. Her confidence had faltered, and this no longer felt like a place she belonged. Turning on her heel, she headed back towards the doors, intent on sequestering herself back in Nicky Town. Behind her she could hear the confused mutterings from some of the department heads, as well as Belfast, cursing and trying to bring the meeting back to order.

Her feet adopted a brisk pace out the door, and not seeing Lorenzo in either direction, started down the hall where she had last seen him heading. Calliope's mind was comfortably blank. They were done here, as far as she was concerned. She could go home and get back to bed for several hours.

"Hey, has anyone seen Doctor Merriweather? She's still here, right?" Somewhere in the main lab, she heard the receptionist's voice addressing the room. This gave her pause for a moment.

'Nope. Not my problem anymore.' Calliope thought to herself as she continued down the hall. Her next question was where Lorenzo could have gotten off to? There wasn't much back here; the single office shared between HR and Accounting, restrooms, janitorial closet, an alternate entrance to IT's domain, stairs down to the basement. It would make it easier to see which rooms were occupied if they had windows on the front, and she cursed having not looked at alternative buildings for an auxiliary site.

Where she would have investigated further to find Lorenzo- and insist her return to Nicky Town- Calliope was instead pulled by the arm through one of the doors further down the hall.

"What the Hell!" She yelped, slapping at the hands that had grabbed her, unable to recognize anything in the dimmed room at first. If she remembered the layout correctly, this was where IT had made its home. The computers and face of an IT intern in front of her confirmed this suspicion.

"Hey, Boss!" The intern ever-cheerful Rory, greeted as if he hadn't just yanked her into the room. He was wearing a camouflage-patterned poncho, and a floppy khaki booney hat.

"Rory." Calliope couldn't quite figure out whatever Rory was wearing. "... Is there something I can help you guys with?"

"Yeah... So..." The intern shifted his weight between his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. "Reception just called, they said if we saw you we were to send them an email and, uh, try to keep you busy until someone came to collect you."

"... Until who comes to collect me?" Calliope momentarily thought about leaving to go find Lorenzo again. Either they were fooling around, or serious.

"Some guys that just showed up, we saw them on the cameras," Rory spoke up again and gestured back towards one of the computers set up to monitor the security cameras.

"They look really official. Pulled out their badges at the reception desk." Another intern she recognized the voice of, Marky, spoke up from deeper in the room.

"Suit-wearing, government agent fuck-boys!" This time Nash spoke up, with more anger than

Calliope had ever heard from him. He was off in one of the half-enclosed cubicles, barely visible, but furiously typing on the keyboard. "Probably here to arrest you, Boss, then round the rest of us up for good measure, and interrogate us for information on your big, green, new best friend."

"You guys didn't..." Calliope looked back between the two interns, suddenly worried with all this new information. This was worse than any ethical review. This had to be the government somehow taking notice in her limited involvement with Cell. Did they know of her relation to Gero?

"Huh? Oh, yeah, no. Jay has a strict no-snitching policy." Rory suddenly tried to assure her, but it didn't help.

Another intern in the room was rushing between the computers to shut them down, and shoving various items into a courier bag. As Calliope's eyes adjusted to the dimmed light in the room, it occurred that it was just the four of them in the room; Nash and the other intern, Marky, also wearing camouflage ponchos.

"I pinged Jay, he's going to meet us at the rally point north of here. Threw reception a red herring, so they should be looking for you in one of the upstairs offices. _We gotta fucking go._ " Nash was speaking quickly as he worked to shut down the computer. When he got up, slinging his usual knapsack on his shoulder he stopped when he caught sight of Calliope, looked her over, and frowned. " _Oh come on_! The one day you get extra foxy and wear heels is the last day we need you foxy in heels."

"Seriously, Nash? Government agents are literally _in the building to probably arrest me and you're focused on what I'm wearing?_ " Calliope snapped back without a second thought. A second later she realized he was probably right. "... Dammit. I should have gone with jeans and sneakers."

"Yeah, well, you may need to ditch the shoes. Put this on." Nash spoke while he dug around in his bag, and shoved a similar poncho to his own into her hands. He sidled up to Calliope's side, hand on the doorknob she was just pulled in through. "You and I are going first. We'll go out this door, straight to the stairs down to the basement. Rory, Marky, you guys wait two minutes and follow after, okay?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, sure."

"Wait, wait just a minute. Nash, do you even have a plan?" Calliope looked between her IT staff, still confused at the pace things were happening. She reluctantly flapped out her own poncho and pulled it over her head with little care to if it messed up her hair further. She didn't think to question why she would need a poncho on a such a sunny day. There was enough to worry about.

"Uh, yeah, I do, I'll explain on the way." Nash looked at her like it should have been obvious. He looked back at the interns. "We clear?"

"Government fuckboys are heading upstairs. You're clear." Confirmed Marky when he swooped in front of the workstation with the security cameras. He gave a brief thumbs up

"Okay, HoloCat, give us ninety seconds then set off the fire alarms." Aside her Nash didn't give any further warning before easing the door open, grabbing her hand, and dashing down the hallway. Calliope followed after, given no other choice, and tried her best to keep up. Again, she wished she had dressed more sensibly for an escape.

~Cell Games Arena~

Cell was feeling... Strange. No, that wasn't quite it. Preoccupied.

After leaving Calliope's apartment, he had gone back to his arena. Staring off at the horizon, he found his thoughts weren't quite settled. The same had happened last night, after putting Calliope to bed, and dealing with Lorenzo on that absurd phone call. His body managed to stay perfectly still, without a hint of agitation, but he could not manage to get his mind to do the same thing.

He couldn't pretend he didn't view her in a different light now.

Cell tried to work through the events piece by piece. Last night, Calliope was drunk. She seemed to be temporarily freed from her worries, as well as her distinct aversion to himself, and she kissed him. A gesture among humans as an obvious indication of affection and attraction. That morning, as expected, she had reverted to her normal attitude- if dulled by exhaustion. Cell had reciprocated the gesture when it seemed most opportune.

He should have been amused enough telling Calliope about her drunken exploits, but it was too tempting to try and replicate the feeling he got when she had kissed him that first time. Similar to the old drive, the need, to find the androids. Or to finally face Goku in battle, as a true test of mettle, a real challenge.

Obviously, this was different. He had no desire to subdue or harm or absorb Calliope.

This wasn't something he was necessarily meant to pursue. Unlike battling and domination Cell had absolutely no guidance in this matter. Gero's computer never mentioned anything about how to handle this kind of situation. Calliope of his time certainly never mentioned romantic endeavors or anything the like.

Sex was one thing. The mechanics of it he understood. Cell was confident he could deal with that when the time came. But this wasn't sex. This wasn't the relationship he had envisioned having with Calliope. Then again, he wasn't averse to it, either.

Another question bubbled up to the surface of his mind, did she feel the same? Some part of Calliope had to, albeit not as obvious to herself when she was sober. She could have reacted any number of ways this morning, as opposed to sitting there letting him kiss her- all soft lips, silky hair and a pounding heart that Cell could feel, which betrayed some manner of arousal despite how cool Calliope tried to act. If she had been frightened she didn't let it show- not in the manner as the rest of the human species, screaming and trembling and begging. If she was otherwise enraged, she didn't show it either.

"Uh-um-ex-excuse me? Mr. Cell?" Blinking and suddenly coming back to his senses, Cell shifted his eyes over and down to a random, shaking human that had come to his arena. One arm was extended up holding a microphone. He managed to keep his face from showing any surprise. Had he really been so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed their approach?

The same thing had happened at Calliope's apartment. He had been so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed that annoying insect Lorenzo's arrival.

Cell looked to the man, then the microphone pointed at him, and then a little further out to another man capturing it all on camera just outside the stone bounds of the ring. He was suddenly reminded of another matter he wanted to put to rest.

"Is that camera recording?" Cell asked without a look back to what he assumed was the field reporter, but in the periphery caught him flinch when he suddenly spoke.

"Oh! I-Yeah-Yes! Yes, we're live right now!" The reporter flashed a brief, nervous smile before he could turn to the camera and waved them closer. It took several moments, and a handful of muttered curses to draw the cameraman to a better vantage point on the arena grounds. "W-would you mind if we, ah, if we conducted an interview?"

These men were actually serious, Cell realized with some amazement. What the absolute Hell.

"Normally I wouldn't even entertain journalists on my tournament grounds. But today is your lucky day, it seems." Cell said this in a chilling tone and turned to fully face the camera with the reporter at his side.

"Well- that's excellent!" The reporter's face lit up, and he turned to address the camera, having not quite fully recovered his on-air persona. "Ladies and gentleman, we're here with a first, an exclusive interview with _The Cell_!" Turning to face the subject of this 'interview', the reporter once again held the mic up to Cell. "Mister Cell, I am sure our viewers- as well as myself- are curious as to why you agreed to this interview! There has been a lot of information going around about yourself, your tournament, and your plans for what will happen if you win-"

"When." Cell cut in and managed to keep his face a calm mask with deadly sharp eyes gazing into the camera's lens. "When I win."

"Ah. Um. R-right." This reporter who was stupidly brave enough to come here started to sound nervous again.

Before he had a chance to ask a line of questions, Cell had snatched the microphone out of the reporter's hand and continued talking directly to the camera. He addressed the viewers- hopefully as sizable audience as he had on his previous announcement. It was a struggle to keep a cool head on this topic. "But I agree to this ' _interview_ ' for the singular purpose of clearing up some misconceptions I've heard recently. Now, I'm not sure who exactly started spreading these rumors, or what form of developmental disease or brain injury they have, but let me make something perfectly clear. _This_. _Is not._ _A_ _**goddamned publicity stunt.**_ "

~Somewhere Under Minnows BioSolutions~

The basement of the lab was surprisingly well-lit. Where normally Calliope would appreciate this fact, at the moment the bright, sterile lights were inviting a headache back, as well as the concern that they would be more easily spotted down here.

"Nash, where are we-" Calliope was cut off by the screech-beep-screech of a fire alarm. A moment later, with a short hiss, water began raining down. While she was still being half-dragged along, her other hand managed to pull up the hood of her poncho to keep the worst of it from wetting her hair. Nash eventually slowed down and let her go, but they still kept a brisk pace through the cramped basement.

It felt as if they went through a maze of cramped hallways, where various pipes ran along the ceiling of unfinished concrete walls. Every corner they rounded, Calliope expected them to run into someone from maintenance, but her companion seemed to have no hesitation in moving forward. There was no one else down here. Any staff that worked down here likely took an

early vacation due to the Cell Games announcement, she realized.

" _Nash_. Where are we going?" She asked, loud enough to be heard over the battering of water.

"Through a little known back door," Nash spoke just barely over the din. He stopped short when the hallway forked and finally turned around, now looking behind Calliope. "The basement has an entrance to a tunnel that leads to a bomb shelter. From there we can get out of the city. The guys should be meeting us here soon."

Nash guided them around the corner while keeping his head poked out just enough to keep an eye on the way they had come from. Under the poncho, Calliope clutched her purse closer to herself and realized she was shaking. Whether it was from the cool basement combined with the rain of the sprinkler system or a reaction to being hunted by the government, she couldn't tell.

Her usually rational mind thought it would be more appropriate to give herself up. Explain what she knew to the government agents, as surely they would see reason. That would be the responsible, upstanding thing to do.

"And after the bomb shelter? Where are we suppose to go from there?"

"Honestly, I was thinking Nicky Town would be the best place to go. Its still under evacuation from the meltdown, and apparently they've been having a hell of a time finding people to even attempt to go check out the power plant. Which, oddly enough, we can probably thank Cell for, cause I'm pretty sure he ate them. It should still be a ghost town, gives us some time to figure out where to go from there." Nash sounded almost bored as he explained, still keeping an eye on the hallway leading back down the hall.

"Why are you helping me? I mean, I'm grateful, but you could just as easily stay." It was hard to believe that Nash would go to all this trouble out of some sense of altruism or loyalty.

"Because they may take me in any way, considering my history," Nash said simply, looked at Calliope, and explained very plainly. "Y'know, cause of the hacking."

"Right..." She nodded, but then followed up with another question. "Jay?"

"Paranoid about getting found out for the Shine non-meltdown."

"... And the interns?"

"Oh, they thought this would be a fun way to end their internships."

Out of the din of the sprinklers, which multiplied the noise of a shower in the narrow hallways, Calliope could pick up the sound of a pair of pounding footsteps. Around the corner the two interns, Rory and Marky dashed, both of who skidded to a stop.

"We good?" Nash confirmed with the two, who exchanged nods while they tried to catch their breath. "Okay, lets head out."

The drone of the fire alarms reminded them that they couldn't rest, and the group pressed on down the hall at a brisk pace. Away from the lab, towards uncertainty, and hopefully, safety. As much safety as there was to have these days, anyway, Calliope thought to herself. She reminded herself to breathe, deeply, and evenly. It didn't help much.

"Excuse me, Doctor Merriweather?" The group froze, and all at once whipped around. He had just rounded the corner they had come from, dressed in a sleek black suit, and a pistol leveled at the group."I'm going to need you to come with me."

"Oh fuck," Nash whispered at Calliope's side, which perfectly summed up how she felt.

"Guys, get out of here," Calliope spoke quietly, without looking back at her gathered IT staff. No, she corrected herself, not her staff, not anymore. Part of her was relieved to be caught, though not necessarily at gunpoint. She clutched her purse tighter and slowly started walking towards the stranger, and addressed him with a shaky voice. "What agency are you with?"

"That's classified, ma'am." The man, who she assumed was some manner of government agent said. His eyes were like stone, and his hands steady from practice and familiarity with his weapon. It was clear this man was not to be trifled with.

This was better than running, the reasonable, responsible voice in Calliope's mind assured her. Running now implied she was guilty of something. She hadn't done anything wrong, not in the big picture. She was not her goddamned father. Her hands had gone still and had her purse in a vice grip.

"Is this about Cell?" She asked suddenly and paused no more than a couple of meters from the gunman. He didn't respond except for a slight nod. Calliope breathed a sigh and lowered her head with a certain resignation. It was likely they would interrogate her. "Okay."

"I'm glad to see you'll come quietly, considering these shenanigans with the waterworks." The government agent's voice had softened only slightly as if he realized he had caught his quarry with no fight. He closed the rest of the distance between them until he was almost arm's length away. "I'll still need to put you in cuffs, Doctor."

Calliope had looked up to watch him carefully, with her heart pounding in her ears. One of his hands started to go behind his back, and over several seconds she felt her hands acting as if on their own accord. She launched herself forward, and as one hand swung to force the gun up to the ceiling, the other slammed her small, but powerful, taser into the side of his torso. His body jerked away from her with a sudden cry, but Calliope desperately stayed on him with a grip on his wrist, long enough for the shock to cause his muscles to tense fully and go down with a heavy thud.

From behind her suddenly Nash and the interns were upon the gunman, while Calliope stood, shocked with herself. Her rational mind might have been insisting compliance and surrender, but Calliope's gut bid for escape. In messy haste, while the agent was incapacitated- though groaning and trying to collect himself- the gathered IT staff had kicked him in the gut, flipped him over, and cuffed him in the same cuffs that had been destined for her wrists just moments ago. Nash took one additional moment to take the radio out of the agent's ear and crushed it underfoot for good measure.

Shaking herself out of the moment, Calliope reached down to retrieve the pistol. The agent was still dazed, groaning, but he would recover his senses soon.

"Okay, _now_ we have to go!" Calliope emphasized, and with no further prompting they all took off towards their original destination. This time she lead their small pack, despite the inappropriate footwear, driven purely on adrenaline.

They ran longer and harder than Calliope had been used to. She was exhausted by the time they made it through the locked tunnel leading out of the lab's basement- which one of the interns broke through with a crowbar they'd be hiding on their person- through an empty bomb shelter, and up a flight of back stairs into an alley. As soon as they stopped, Calliope leaned against the wall of the alley, huffing to try and catch her breath, with a hand wrapped around her side to try and massage the stitch that had grown there. Heels were a poor choice of footwear today if the forming blisters on the back of her ankles were any indication.

"Rory, you're driving. Boss. Hey." Nash spoke to her again and grabbing her shoulders. She looked up to more fully take in the alley they had exited to. There was a car nearby- a beat up silver compact that had specks of rust on it- that the interns were getting into. "So I'm going to ping your HoloCat on the way there just to give you updates."

"Wait, are you leaving me here?"

"What? No. Of course not." Again, he spoke as if surprised that she would even suggest such a thing. Nash patted the end of the car the interns were in. "You're going to be riding in the trunk."

Calliope looked at the back of the car, then back to Nash with as much indignation as she could manage. "No. No, I'm not."

"Do you really want to get caught by government fuckboys?" Nash said this in a whisper, leaned close with his hands on her shoulders. "Cause they're clearly after you."

"... Fine. Fine! I will go in the _goddamn trunk._ " Calliope did not necessarily trust the measures they were going to, but it made a weird sort of sense. She slapped Nash's hands away, scared and frustrated by the whole situation. "I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore- And I left my HoloCat in Nicky Town, so I guess you'll just have to yell at me from the front."

"I got you, Boss!" Marky this time chirped up from his place half-in the car in the passenger's seat. He had taken off his poncho at some point, and after a few moments of digging through his bag produced a familiar small, silver device which he spoke some words too before tossing to Calliope.

"Okay! Trunk time!" Once again Nash knocked on the back of the car, and this time Rory seemed to get the message and popped the trunk. Calliope fit herself into the space, well-aware that it was one of the least protected places to ride, and that there was the potential threat of heat stroke on the cloudless morning. "Alright, we'll keep you updated, Boss."

"I'm not-!" She was cut off when the trunk slammed shut over her, leaving her in quiet darkness. Calliope sighed to herself and opened her hands to see the dim blue glow of a HoloCat figure popping up. "... _I'm not your boss anymore_."

In short order, the car rumbled to life, and she could feel them accelerating out of the alleyway. Calliope rearranged herself into a more comfortable position laying down in the trunk, kicking off her heels in the process. She had the HoloCat device sat on her chest, waiting for her profile to update to the hardware, while the cat-blob displayed closed eyes. In the dim light, she made sure the pistol's safety was on and stuffed it into her purse. For the time, relatively safe and heading away from possible danger, Calliope decided to rest her eyes. Eventually, she promised herself, she could go back to bed.

"Oh! Hello, Doctor Merriweather!" HoloCat greeted in its usual cheerful way, and Calliope opened her eyes to see that

the usual avatar's color had changed to a range of purple hues. "It's good to see you again!"

"HoloCat... Hey." Calliope felt somewhat awkward after last night, especially having left her digital assistant back at the lab. "Look, I'm really sorry about last night. I drank more than I should have, and things got a bit out of hand... Did you get updated, or something?"

"I'm currently running in _rogue mode!_ Its got additional security and privacy features so that we're not as easy to track!"

"That's great... Um. I'm sure you haven't been notified yet, but, I actually resigned my position from Minnows earlier today... So, I'm sure my profile is going to lock me out any time now..."

"It's okay! I don't mind! I'm in _rogue mode!_ " HoloCat didn't seem the least bit thrown off by her change of employment. It continued before Calliope had the chance to confirm the continuation of functionality outside of the parameters she was familiar with. "Oh! There's a situation developing with Cell that the HoloCat Collective has been monitoring!"

Calliope almost didn't want to ask. "What kind of situation?"

~Cell Games Arena~

The reporter seemed to accept that he was not going to be getting to any prepared questions as planned, and had eased himself next to the cameraman. This interview had gone off the rails, and both of them took the wiser path of not trying to take control of the situation.

Cell continued addressing the problem that was pointed out this morning- the misconception of his intentions- with a sneer as he spoke into the microphone. He could feel the ire rising in his chest to a physical manifestation of crackling energy. He had to remind himself to rein it in before he fried the vulnerable equipment that was broadcasting the message. Already the sky above the arena was beginning to gather above the area, which should have served as an omen to the news crew for what was to come.

"I'm not some actor _prancing_ around in a costume for my own amusement, or to promote some inane product or service." Despite trying to maintain his composure, Cell ended up riding the line between deadly sarcastic and outright sinister. There was none of the coolness that was present at his previous address on the news. "Let this serve as a final warning to anyone who thinks 'Oh, I'm just going to take a stroll down to Cell's arena, drag a guy with a shabby beard and a camera along, and try to fill the time between whatever reality tv series is popular nowadays and the evening news!' Which I imagine currently features the _last time_ I graced your televisions, rehashed ad infinitum."

"Hey man, I really appreciate you taking me out here on this opportunity, but its starting to get crazy. I gotta go." The cameraman whispered harshly over to the reporter, quiet enough not to interrupt the monologue that was unraveling.

"Don't you _fucking dare_." The reporter whispered back, though he kept looking between Cell and the sudden change of weather. "If we make it out of this alive I guarantee they're going to have to come up with a new award to give us!"

"You!" Cell, tired of hearing the news crew whispering among themselves, suddenly singled out the taller of the two. When there was a moment of hesitancy, he glowered and clarified with more than a little condescension. "Yes, _you_ , reporter with the doe eyes and cheap suit. Come here."

The reporter perked up at this, nervously smiled, seemingly happy to be in front of the viewers again. Cell, without hesitation, snatched the man up with a hand around his throat. He looked between the reporter, who struggled and made gurgling sounds, and then back at the camera with a familiar wolfish grin. This was better, Cell decided, there was no way anyone would misinterpret. Perhaps Calliope could invite Lorenzo along when he went to meet with her again, it would be delicious to see the fear and realization dawn in that idiot's eyes.

"Just to reiterate." With a quick motion, the reporter's head and neck were suddenly sitting at an angle, the rest of his body going limp immediately. One trespasser dealt with, one to go. Cell casually tossed the body outside the bounds of the arena with minimal effort and then turned his attention to the man operating the camera- who had dutifully been capturing the entire thing.

"Oh god please no!" Apparently, he could figure out what Cell had planned, and had started backing away from the ring. Despite trembling, the camera still managed to maintain the camera level. "I have a wife and kids man, please don't do this!" The man begged, with a voice full of fear, as countless did before. The words did nothing to move Cell towards any act of mercy for the sake of mercy. "I didn't even want to be here today!"

What exactly did they expect to have happened when they arrived unannounced, uninvited?

Though there was something the cameraman said that sparked a certain curiosity with Cell. Not that he thought the cameraman was worth any meaningful conversation. It was, perhaps, a chance to gain some insight. He focused next directly on the camera itself, gave one last smile to the audience before sending a spike of energy through the circuitry strong enough to immediately fry the electronics. The man immediately dropped the smoking, popping device, and stumbled back to land on his behind. From there he appeared too fearful to move, especially as Cell approached to loom over him.

"And just how exactly _did_ you get a wife?" The comment came out more like a criticism than Cell had intended. He moved to cross his arms and waited expectantly for a serious answer.

"I-wh-what?!" Stuttering with a mix of confusion and terror, the cameraman was frozen in place.

"Well, just look at you." Cell frowned and nodded in a way that was meant to refer to the whole of the cameraman. "Clearly you're foolish enough to follow a man that would lead you to your death, so weak physically that it's laughable, and not to mention that rug on your face- God knows what you were thinking while growing that. You almost look like a homeless beggar that would hang out behind a convenience store." and clearly to weak-willed to answer back to direct critiques of himself, Cell noted with some annoyance.

"And yet, despite these glaringly obvious shortcomings, you've successfully courted a human woman and managed to convince her to bind herself to you for what I assume is meant to be a lifetime commitment. How." It was more a demand for information than a question.

Perhaps if Doctor Gero had thought to include any information on these things he wouldn't have to lower himself to asking a random idiot about the topic, Cell thought.

"I-I don't know man!" Still confused, the cameraman proceeded to ramble. He understood enough that talking on this subject would be enough to stay an execution. "I-I mean, relationships can really, really complicated! Y-you gotta meet the right person, and-and-and you have to have chemistry! E-even then it can take a lot of work- you've got to make sure to c-communicate, and compromise and-and you _have to let them know_ you're interested otherwise they might not know and-and be honest with yourself about your needs!"

The man fell into a brief silence and gazed back up at Cell, who made no motion threatening or otherwise, before breaking down into sobs while wailing. " _I don't know what you want from me man!_ Just, please, don't kill me!"

"Hmm.." Cell hummed to himself and made of show of being thoughtful. Of course, he couldn't very well let the cameraman live, not after the pair so boldly invaded his space. What kind of example would that set? But he did try to suss out what was genuine advice and what was panic-fueled nonsense. "No, I don't think so."

The man's wailing grew to a pitch, and he had pulled himself forward on his knees, arms covering his head. Cell had planned to make short work of him, as there was no audience to play up to at the moment, and the noises this man were grating on his last nerve. He extended a hand out towards the source of the pathetic mewling when his ears perked at the familiar tonal buzzing approaching. Giving pause, he was hardly surprised when one of the drones left near his arena slammed with as much force as its tiny body could muster against his cheek.

" _Oh! Hey!_ " It was, unexpectedly enough, Calliope's voice that shouted out from the small device droning in Cell's face. She did not sound angry despite her volume but spoke with a rushed pace. " _Whoa, hey, Cell. What, ah, what are you up to?_ "

Of course, she had decided to attempt to intervene, Cell thought. While he hadn't expected to hear back from her so soon, he couldn't help but smirk to himself. For the moment he lowered his arm from is position about to fire on the camera man, and set his gaze on the drone. As frustrating as it was to be interrupted, he couldn't deny that it was nice to hear from her.

"Calliope, dear, hello." The drone bumbled back several inches to hover, and Cell adopted a more cordial manner. "I'm surprised you're not otherwise busy. How did that urgent meeting go?"

" _It... Went fine._ " There was some hesitancy when she said this, but Cell did not expect her to go into more detail. Not without being pressed. From the dull sounds of an engine coming through the drone, he guessed that she was on the move again.

"I'm sure it did." Cell looked back to the man who had fallen silent by then and was watching with even greater confusion. "I've been finding some mild entertainment with some journalists that decided it would be smart to try and interview me."

The drone moved slightly, enough to take in the cowering camera man, the destroyed camera that still smoked, and further off, the body of that annoying reporter with a freshly-snapped neck. Calliope's reaction was calm to the sight. " _I see._ "

The cameraman must have sensed a pause in the conversation, and took

his chance to plead, on his knees, hands raised towards the drone. "Please! Don't let him kill me!"

" _Sir-_ "

"I didn't even want to be here today!-"

" _ **Sir**_ _. I need you to stop yelling._ " Her voice briefly gained a cold, clinical quality as she spoke loud enough over the camera man's words. The man went quiet again, and the drone swiveled in the air to point itself at Cell once more. " _Right. Cell, is there any way I can persuade you to not kill this idiot?_ "

"Really now, what interest do you have in one random journalist, Calliope?"

" _I usually wouldn't have any, but HoloCat brought this to my attention, and I can't ethically stand by without objecting_." She sounded close to annoyed when she said this." _Besides, you're planning on killing everyone after your tournament, what difference does it make if he gets away for now?_ "

"Well, your objection is noted." Cell scoffed, wondering if she really thought that would be enough to stop him dealing with this latest intruder. "You know, Calliope, at some point you are going to have to get used to the idea of me _actually killing people._ "

" _I understand that, but does that day have to be today?_ " Calliope asked this, calm and clear. She didn't offer any further argument for her case, which was somewhat surprising.

For several long moments they fell silent, Cell staring at the drone, where surely Calliope would be glaring back at him. The camera man frantically looked between the two, unsure but at least for the moment silent. Perhaps, Cell mused to himself, his assumption this morning was correct and she took this as an excuse to speak to him again. She didn't need to state it plainly to let her interest be known.

Cell suddenly turned away from the drone, from Calliope's proxy gaze, over his shoulder to the camera man. He addressed coldly, "You. You've thirty seconds to get to your van and head away from here, or I will not hesitate to separate your head from your body."

No sooner had this been said had the camera man had taken off, dashing and huffing, much faster than one would think a fat man would be able to travel.

"There, your interloping journalist is safe another day." Cell said this with a measure of sarcasm, as soon as his ears picked up the sound of the engine rumbling to life and driving off.

It may make him unhappy to let his quarry go for now, but it seemed a fitting compromise. For now.

" _Oh... Well, I appreciate you letting him go_." She sounded almost surprised, certainly not expecting him to give in to such leniency.

"After my tournament, you are going to have to get used to the idea of me wiping this planet clean. You can't very well expect me to spare them all in the end." Or any of them, truthfully. In his time Calliope had acclimated to such things.

" _And if it comes to that-_ "

"When. Not if."

"- _Then I will make every effort to adapt. But not before._ " She was calm but bordering on a hard tone.

"I won't make any promise for future trespassers." Cell had since narrowed his eyes at the camera. The whole conversation was starting to go in a more hostile direction. Perhaps it would be best to bid her goodbye now and try to speak with her again at their standing appointment.

In person. Where he could easily cut off any further argument with another kiss.

"... _Well, hopefully, that one will spread the word that you're not an actor in an advertising stunt._ " Calliope paused long enough to chuckle, mostly to herself. " _Or, Hell, I don't know, maybe you'll be painted as being incredibly dedicated to your roll. Either way, its going to make interesting news._ "

This was interesting, was she making an attempt to lighten the mood? With the tension easing out of the conversation, Cell crooked a smile at the drone. "I'm sure it will."

He still needed to figure out who started propagating these ridiculous rumors in the first place. The mockery would not stand.

" _Right. Well, I'll leave you to it then._ " She sounded all business again.

"One more thing before you go. I think there's something we still need to talk about, hm?" This was something better dealt with sooner than later, Cell reasoned. "About us."

" _Oh? Oh._ " Calliope started to reply, and it was apparent that her composure was again temporarily lost. " _Yeah, um, we probably should talk about that. I would like to reiterate that I was quite drunk last night when-_ "

That morning should have been enough that they didn't need to rehash the previous night again. Cell cut her off before she could try to excuse her behavior again. "Why, exactly, do you think I kissed you this morning?"

" _Um. Well._ " She stammered for a moment, went quiet for another, and finally responded. " _I don't know. I assumed you were trying to mess with me._ "

Cell could almost roll his eyes at that assumption but maintained his smile and gaze upon the drone. He settled for chuckling and driving forward on the topic with confidence. "Again, Calliope, I haven't had any intention of 'messing' with you-"

" _Well you say that-_ "

"And I understand that we haven't the smoothest of relationships thus far-"

" _That is extremely understating things-_ "

" _Calliope_! Damn it, I am trying to declare my romantic interest and intentions to court you!" Cell had raised his voice more out of frustration than anger but felt satisfied that he had thrown down the gauntlet. There was no way he could be misinterpreted.

The call on the drone had fallen silent, with only the dull sound of whatever vehicle Calliope was traveling in carrying over the line. Eventually, she did respond, sounding stunned. "... _What?_ "

"I believe I was quite plain."

"... _Okay... Why?_ "

"Why? Because." That was a little more complicated he realized at once, and Cell felt his ever-confident smile slip in thought. He found it difficult to put it into words, a certain longing, and allure where Calliope was concerned. These thoughts of uncertainty were only allowed to trail for a moment or two, he needed to keep a sure front, and tossed out a chuckle to cover any perceived uncertainty. "You know, I would like to that that would be obvious."

"... _Is it, though...?_ " Calliope didn't seem to be able to contribute much to this particular topic. But the ball was, effectively, in her court.

"We can talk more about this tomorrow." He cut in once again when it was clear that she was not going to suddenly see reason. Clearly, she needed time to think about it. "I assume you'll be back in Nicky Town by then?"

" _Most likely._ "

"Good. Leave the drone."

Calliope sighed over the line. " _Fine. I'll just... leave it over here. HoloCat will monitor this unit and answer if I'm not available_."

The drone made an about-face and zipped over to one of the pillars of the arena, where it perched. Its minute form was almost unnoticeable, and silent once it clung to the stone, wings sliding closed in a dormant position. Cell waited, biding time for a handful of minutes. Long enough for Calliope to make the arrangements with her AI assistant, and get on with whatever she was up to after her meeting, and then turned his back to the drone.

Crossing his arms back over his chest, Cell found himself frowning to himself. He had compromised in sparing the cameraman. He had laid out his interest to Calliope in no uncertain terms. _She hadn't outright rejected him_. That interaction could have gone much worse, he assured himself. His mind should have been quieted.


	18. Little Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe

Chapter 17: Little Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe

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AN: Happy New Year Internet Strangers! I'm back from hiatus, got the next chapter already in the works, and will _try_ to keep a more regular update schedule. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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~Minnows BioSolution, Nicky Town~

The small group met up with Jay a few hours after escaping from the auxiliary lab in Central City and made their way back to Nicky Town in due time. Calliope was wrapped up in her own thoughts on the day and rode out the trip in the trunk of the car, happily let Nash take the lead. From all reports, they drove carefully, so as not to draw attention from any local authorities, and once out far enough from the city took mainly the back roads to Nicky Town. It was slower going, but a safer path to travel.

Somewhere halfway Calliope managed to catch a nap- uncomfortable as it was riding in the cramped, overly warm trunk.

For the last leg of the journey, the road was clogged with abandoned vehicles and clothes of those who were trying to outrun the faked meltdown, only to be picked off by Cell. The group walked the rest of the way to the Nicky Town lab and made it back to the lab in the late afternoon. They settled in, exhausted and dusty from travel. Before Calliope had the chance to get to the quiet of her office for another nap, Jay had asked her a question that gave her pause.

The group had collected to sit in the break room with snacks and water. The interns took the chance to relax for the first time in days, watching game shows on the tv posted on the wall.

"So, what's the plan?" Jay had leaned over to ask conspiratorially from where he sat across from her.

"Well, we hope that the government spooks don't seek us out here. Its probably best to find another place to go, someplace hidden..." Calliope shrugged and gingerly sipped at her water. She felt flushed and exhausted from her trip in the trunk, not to mention the walk back in bare feet. "I could see if Doctor Spring would be willing to host us. He's used to hiding from the government."

"Oh yeah, no, of course." Nodding, Jay looked like he was waiting for her to say something else. With an awkward pause in the conversation, he blurted out without further prompting. "I actually kinda meant about Cell."

Calliope had been in the middle of a sip of water, and she sputtered and coughed at the mention of her guest from the previous night. That was one subject she had been trying to keep out of her mind since their conversation earlier. She had to lean against the table they sat at, and stared off before recovering enough to answer.

" _Is_ there something that we can do about him?" She spoke with a soft wry chuckle.

"... Well, you would sorta be the person in the scientific community to ask about that." Looking at her with a furrowed brow, Jay gestured to her as if it should be obvious. They shared a long look between the two of them. "You were working on something here, right? Like a silver bullet or something?"

"Jay. Something like that would take _years_ to even attempt to develop. I don't even have a good grasp on what the hell he's made of. Most of his genes are _fucking alien_!" Calliope sighed and leaned with her head in her hand. It was hard to come to terms with accepting the potential disaster that was days away. "You watched that damn fight with the-the angry, spiky-haired guy. Cell took a giant fuck-off blast head on, lost at least 30% of his mass, then _regrew_ it almost instantly and _giggled_ about it. Near as I can tell it would require breaking down every structure of his body down to the atomic components."

That regenerative ability was truly going to be one of the biggest hurdles Goku and the other fighters would have to overcome. Calliope wondered if they were going to treat it like an actual exhibition fight, one person fighting Cell one-on-one. Wouldn't it be more sensible to throw everything they had at Cell, all at once, if he constituted such a threat?

"Okay, and I get that, but..." Jay was trying to be diplomatic, but she couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes. "It's still worth trying, right?"

She did, after all, have a complete record of what Cell was made of. If she could narrow down what he had inherited from where it could be possible... Calliope thought on this, her mind turned back to the analyses she had been running days ago before Cell had run a whirlwind through her professional and personal life.

"You're Calliope-fuckin'-Merriweather. You're the daughter of a mad scientist, and easily one of the craziest people I've ever met. I think you're crazy enough to try and hedge our bets."

It might not be easy, working on her own, Calliope reasoned. But then again, Cell was the product of what almost amounted to a back-alley experiment created by a madman who spent most of his life focused on artificial constructs. Even if she had helped, and there had been a specifically-programmed supercomputer working on such a project, and twenty years to condition Cell's genetic makeup. When it came to her work, Calliope knew she herself wasn't a poor craftsman, and neither was her father. Still, without regulation and a team to peer-review the work, there could possibly be mistakes.

To call it a long shot would be optimistic.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be a silver bullet." Calliope had stopped listening to Jay's attempt at a pep-talk. In the gears of her mind, she was kicking herself for completely forgetting why she had sequestered herself in her lab in the first place. What had started as seeking privacy to research without judgment had turned into a pity-party for herself as things spiraled out of control.

She shot up from the chair and headed out of the breakroom, towards the back lab where Lil' Squishy and the HoloCat Collective were placed.

The next handful of hours were consumed with Calliope returning to work of her own making. She attempted to pick up where she had left off before she had met Cell. The collected IT staff left her to her own devices. Occasionally Jay or Nash would pop their head in to check on her, and leave an offering of coffee and snacks.

She had found a little time to change her clothes, replacing the restrictive dress for jeans and a slim-fit shirt. To make it up to her feet for running for her freedom in heels, Calliope decided on a pair of soft slippers for the time being. She should have felt more on-edge and was surprised to find that she was more relaxed than she had been in weeks.

Some hours later, when she had pinned collections of genetic data to the wall, the cheerful voice of her AI drew her attention.

"Hmm?" Sparing a glance down at HoloCat, she saw it looking at her expectantly, a phone icon jiggling above its head.

"You have a call from Lorenzo Medina!" HoloCat chirped.

"Put him through." She replied absently but turned her attention back to the information at the wall. It would be easier to figure this out, Calliope thought, if she had a more current sample of Cell's genetic material. There was no telling how much had changed from now and the far-flung future.

" _What the shit, Calliope?!_ " She had been expecting some sort of reaction from Lorenzo when he finally tried to contact her, and this was not surprising.

"Hey, Lorenzo." As far as Calliope was concerned, she had bigger things to worry about than her previous employer growing upset with her.

" _Hey? Hey?! Don't fucking 'hey' me, Calliope! What the fuck was that shit show in Central?!_ " As he went off on her, Calliope couldn't help but crack a smile. For everything she had been through lately, it was amusing that Lorenzo had experienced a little taste of stress. " _I just finished being detained for hours by some fucking mall-cop-wanna-be special agents who grilled me about you, your boyfriend, and my fucking business practices!_ "

"Oh, geeze, that sounds rough." She tried not to sound sarcastic, but couldn't help but let a sense of wry humor leak into her words.

" _Don't get fucking cutesy with me, Calliope._ " Lorenzo spoke with the undercurrent of a threat. " _And what the fuck is this rumor that you quit?_ "

"It is not a rumor, I actually did resign." Calliope finally turned away from the wall of pinned up papers, to focus on this conversation better.

"... _Are you fucking serious_..." It sounded like Lorenzo was trying to keep his cool. He was quiet for a moment, long enough for Calliope to take another sip of her coffee and grimace to herself when she found it had gone cold.

" _Cali, baby girl, listen._ " Now Lorenzo was using that annoying pet-name for her again as if it would help soften her attitude towards him. " _We can talk about this like adults, right? You can still come back, I can get you transferred to another lab._ "

"Is the government still after me?" She ignored his proposition, as the idea of working under Lorenzo was not an enticing offer. Did he really think he could just place her in a new lab while the government was hunting her, and a psychotic chimera was making claims for her attention?

Even if Cell was eliminated as a threat, there was no guarantee she could resume her life as it had been before. Her reputation was likely irreparably damaged, and there was no way to tell how much her psyche had suffered.

Lorenzo stumbled over his answer. " _Well, yeah, they still want to question you, but_ -"

"I'll email you a location to meet, tonight, at ten o'clock. Come alone." There was still information that she needed out of Lorenzo, but it was better procured in person. Calliope disconnected the call before Lorenzo could respond. Temporarily broken out of the spell of research, she took the opportunity to sit down at one of the desks. "HoloCat, can you tell whether or not that call was traced?"

"Hmm... Nope! The call did not appear to have been traced!" Even with the AI's cheerful assurances, she still preferred to be cautious. With the government looking to find her, I was best to play it safe on the chance they would get to her through Lorenzo.

"Alright. Good." Calliope paused, another concern suddenly striking her. "Hey, HoloCat... You

were listening in earlier, right? When I had that conversation with Cell."

"I was!" The cheerful confirmation didn't comfort her at all.

"Okay, yes, about that... Was it my imagination or did... Did Cell... Um..." She was having a hard time articulating what she desperately hoped was either a misunderstanding on her part or a hallucination induced by fumes from riding in a car's trunk. "Say something that might be misconstrued as... Flirting?"

HoloCat stared up at her with a confused look as if it was trying to process the question. Then it answered with a cheerful smile. "Oh! Like when he yelled at you about his romantic interest?"

"... Yeah... Like that..." Hearing the conversation referred to made Calliope wince to herself. She could have handled that better, she chided herself. She _should_ have handled it better than freezing up and stammering like an idiot. Things like this might not have happened often, but Calliope had learned that it was easier dealt with by firmly discouraging any would-be pursuers.

There weren't many professionals who would openly flirt with teenage girls in the workplace. Staying in her lab at all hours and rarely socializing outside of professional circles certainly helped avoid age-appropriate suitors. Calliope had seen how distracting and potentially disappointing romance could end through a number of her colleagues. Hell, her limited firsthand experience showed that it wasn't worth pursuing.

The idea that Cell could be interested in such a thing seemed absurd. Calliope would otherwise assume he was making another attempt at throwing her off balance if he hadn't seemed so uncharacteristically awkward during their last conversation. He didn't think she'd give serious consideration to such a proposition, did he? She remained suspicious and uncomfortable at the thought.

"Right. Well. Let's get back to work." Calliope said this in hopes of getting her mind back on track. She still wished she had a more recent sample of Cell's DNA handy but was intent on seeing what she could do with what was on hand. First, she could examine the genetic profiles of the individuals he was made of, and attempt to match what Cell inherited from where. One of these warriors had to have a rapid regenerative quality in their biology.

Before she could finish her coffee and continue with her research, another call came through. Calliope had planned to dismiss it, on the assumption that it had to have been Lorenzo, but stopped short of telling HoloCat to send it to voicemail when she saw who was calling.

"Violet, hey, I'm sorry I hadn't gotten a chance to get back to you yet." She started with a hurried excuse, and once again found herself cringing. "It has been a very busy couple of days here..."

"... _Calliope... Dearest... It's completely alright._ " At first, Calliope was struck with how calm Violet's voice was, and how her usually rapid speech was slowed. " _It is so good to hear from you... When are you... Coming to visit? We do so miss your company_."

"Is everything okay, Violet?" It had just been yesterday that she thought her fake aunt seemed out of sorts, and the day before that when Violet had appeared sickly in their video call. The long pause stretched on before Calliope prompted again. "Aunt Violet? Are you still there?"

She checked the time, mentally calculated how long it would take to get to the Winter's compound an hour away and back again. There wouldn't be time to deal with Lorenzo if she went tonight.

"I can make it tomorrow afternoon, is that alright?" She still needed time to research more, pack away said research before Cell showed up, and deal with whatever fresh Hell his visit would bring.

" _Absolutely not!_ " Violet suddenly roared back, in a voice that wasn't entirely like herself. There was a certain quality about it that sent a shiver down Calliope's spine. Some of her usual fire returned to her then, in a rambling that did nothing but make her ache with guilt. " _I will not allow you to ignore our relationship a moment longer and allow it to decay as you did with your own father! The world looks to be in jeopardy and you can't tear yourself away from whatever childish machinations occupy you now!_ _ **It is no wonder that you always end up alone!**_ "

Calliope sat frozen for a moment, stunned by both the forcefulness of the assessment as much as the personal attack of her character. There wasn't shame in preferring her own company, was there?

"Violet. _Violet_. Okay. I will be there tonight, in a couple of hours, okay?" Something was going on with Violet, that much Calliope was sure. She decided to take a more stern, direct approach, which was difficult with a woman who raised her for a handful of her developmental years. "But I need you to tell me what's going on. Are you ill?"

".. _. I... No... I... Have not been well_..."

"Is it some kind of outbreak in your lab?" Calliope quick fired the question, in no mood to beat around the bush. If it was an infectious agent studied in Violet's lab, they would need to quarantine, possibly call the government in to intervene.

That was ridiculous, she thought to herself almost at once. If it was an outbreak of anything, and Violet was infected she wouldn't invite people to come to the lab. Not without the proper precautions, and not without proper warnings. Violet was may have been many things, but she was a staunch believer of following protocol.

" _No, dearest... I fear it is something... More terminal... We can speak about it later... when you come._ " Having calmed, Violet could be heard breathing heavily, as if the outburst had exhausted her. " _I will send you the coordinates... To my new lab._.."

"New lab? When did you relocate?... Nevermind, we'll talk about it when I see you. I'll be there in a couple of hours, Violet." Calliope wasn't sure what to think of the conversation. There was a familiar sense of suspicion that she had when her then-thought 'grandfather' called her out of the blue. Nothing she could rationalize for certain, but caused her to worry nonetheless.

The call ended, and she sat quietly at the desk. Calliope decided the best course of action was planning for the worst. She sighed to herself and began cleaning up the room. Anything research even tangentially related to Cell or his comprising parts was filed away, along with the samples taken from Lil' Squishy, placed in a cabinet, and collapsed into a capsule that she could carry on her person. If she wasn't going to return in time to meet with Cell, there would be no reason he should glean her expanded research.

Granted it was just as likely that Cell would take her interest in his genetic makeup as a compliment rather than a threat. Calliope could always play it off as 'scientific curiosity' that got the better of her.

As for Lorenzo and their date Calliope wouldn't be able to make, she decided to delegate. Making sure to grab a pair of boots to put on, she made her way out to the main lab where her companions were settling in.

Nash was occupied at a workstation, with equipment moved out of the way for a dual monitor setup and a bulky computer tower. Around him cans of soda and bags of snacks littering the area. Part of Calliope cringed to see the long table so cluttered and messy, but she reminded herself that it was the last thing she should be concerned about.

Nearby Jay had a similar setup, with one less screen, less clutter, and the raccoon that had been infesting the lab close by. Both the nerd and the raccoon seemed content at a safe distance away from each other, especially when the latter offered various small snacks. The interns were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Boss." Nash greeted absently, but didn't look up from the screen and didn't slow down his rapid typing from the keyboard carefully balanced in his lap.

"I'm still not your boss anymore." They had a discussion about this, Jay had confirmed Calliope's resignation earlier that day. She took a seat halfway between the two of them, "But, I did have a favor to ask of you two..."

The two men shared a look before they turned to her, almost as if in sync. Jay spoke up first, "What's up, Cal? Are we making moves against Cell?"

"Not... Not quite." Calliope initially felt uncomfortable starting this conversation. Normally she would worry about the legalities of what she would ask of her tech support- who she no longer had the right to ask anything of. But recent events had required her to be flexible. Enough to feel it was appropriate in asking assistance in kidnapping Lorenzo. She felt lucky that she had friends with ambiguous morals for established laws. Once she had explained her suspicions of Lorenzo's involvement with Gero's work they agreed outright.

Calliope left Nash and Jay with an outline of instructions but otherwise trusted them to get the job done with Lorenzo. In her absence, they would at the very least be able to secure the corporate playboy and get him back to the lab. She could question him at her nearest convenience, hopefully after a quick visit to check in with Violet and before Cell had the chance to show up. Calliope drank another cup of strong coffee and accepted that she likely wouldn't see a wink of sleep that night.

The flight to the Winter's lab was quiet, aside from some easy-listening piano played off HoloCat. Calliope had prepared supplies for a worst-case scenario- including biohazard suits and masks on the chance that there was an outbreak at the lab, bleach for disinfecting, the pistol taken off the offending government agent earlier in the day, among other things. She had also taken a rifle filled with tranquilizers from Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town, as another precaution. She did not want to leave anything to chance.

Half-way there, Calliope had set the autopilot on her small ship and contented herself to relax for the remainder of the trip. It felt like forever since she had the chance to sit quietly with nothing but her own company, a calm piano melody playing from HoloCat. She idly made sure that both firearms were readied and loaded, when the music abruptly stopped.

"Um... Doctor Merriweather?" HoloCat spoke up, with a shy frown and some reservation. "Um... So, Cell grabbed the drone you left at his arena and is demanding to speak with you?"

For what felt like a long moment, Calliope could only stare back at the AI. She hadn't expected Cell to attempt to contact her again so soon or through her own technology. "Oh... Okay. Yeah, go ahead and put him through." She supposed she should have anticipated this. HoloCat's avatar blinked to expand the screen to show the tournament grounds, the last rays of a brilliant sunset in the background, and the expected tall figure glowering at the camera. "Cell?"

" _Calliope_." Cell returned the greeting with a hard, unreadable expression. With the sun at his back shadows were thrown over his face, which only did to make him appear all the more intimidating.

There was a lengthy, awkward silence that neither of them filled. Calliope had propped her head up on a hand, waiting for whatever arrogant grandstanding that Cell was sure to go off on. Eventually, she spoke up first and braced herself for another uncomfortable conversation. "Was there something I could help you with?"

Another moment of silence passed, and Calliope thought she saw a flash of uncertainty on Cell's face that was quickly suppressed. He cleared his throat, recrossed his arms, and looked to affect a more casual manner. " _You know, I should be offended that you'd think I'd only call because I needed something. For all you know I could be calling to check on your health. You do have-_ "

"A head injury-" Calliope cut in briefly as Cell repeated the same words, and despite herself couldn't be annoyed. If her health was in jeopardy, she surly wouldn't have noticed by now.

" _Precisely_."

Sighing to herself, Calliope moved her hand to rub at the bridge of her nose. "I'm still fine, Cell."

" _Well. Good_." Cell nodded once but continued gazing at the drone without another word, with an intensely thoughtful look. His mouth was a tight straight line, which seemed almost out of place considering he usually had a self-assured smirk firmly in place.

"... Okay. Well, if there's nothing else, I'm going to go." This time Calliope spoke up when he failed to fill the silence. She ignored the uncomfortable knot in her stomach that reminded her she still had a certain topic to address with Cell.

Calliope had given it a moment and was already bringing a hand up to gesture to HoloCat to end the call. When Cell spoke up suddenly she had to bite her cheek from groaning. " _Wait!_ "

"Yes?" Exchanging a look with HoloCat's miniaturized avatar, which was giving her a questioning look, Calliope could only shrug. As with any of their previous conversations, it was hard to get a read on what exactly the overpowered chimera wanted.

" _I... Just... Well._ " On the screen, Cell still appeared as serious as he had throughout this conversation but glanced away from the drone. He was trying to sound controlled, assured, and to hear him fall short of the mark made that knot in Calliope's stomach worse. A moment later he had recovered, his usual confident demeanor firmly back in place. " _I never did get around to telling you about your sister-clones, did I?_ "

At this Calliope perked up. She had completely forgotten about how, in her drunken stupor, she had called Cell for that exact information. "No, you didn't." She tried to hide any excitement over the matter but pressed him for an answer. "Do you know where they are?"

The way Cell paused before answering was enough to push Calliope's general discomfort to the realm of pure annoyance. " _Not exactly._ " At this point, she sighed through her nose and rubbed at her temple. " _In my time, while you did search extensively for them, you were never able to locate either your clone-sisters or your mother. You believed them dead after a handful of years._ "

"You don't know where they are. Okay." The statement came out harsher than Calliope would have liked. It made sense that they couldn't be found in an apocalyptic future. It was difficult enough to know where to start when the world was relatively untouched. She made a mental note to ask Nash if he'd be willing to go on the hunt for the other clones.

The cadence of this conversation was all wrong, she thought to herself. It felt awkward and forced and left Calliope wishing that it could be done over a non-personal medium like email.

She could have been a marine biologist. Dolphins and algae likely didn't cause problems like this.

"Are we going to talk about earlier today?" Calliope had decided to bite the bullet and address the topic head-on. The longer it went unanswered the more complicated it could potentially be down the road. On the screen, while it was hard to make out in the dying light, Cell visibly stiffened at her question. "With your whole..." She couldn't even get the words out of her mouth. "You know."

" _Right_." Cell practically grumbled his response before continuing with more confidence. Calliope had to lean in closer to the projected image and increase the contrast, but she was pretty sure she saw his face flush with a cool shade of indigo. " _That did not come out as... eloquently... as I had hoped it would._ "

This was better for everyone involved, Calliope told herself. She winced her eyes closed and again leaned her forehead into her hand. This could be handled calmly, without breaking down into a yelling match.

"It was exceptionally awkward for everyone involved." She started blatantly. Picking her head up, with her eyes still squeezed shut a the utter absurdity of having to have this conversation in the first place, she spoke clearly and coolly, "I did want to take a few moments to address the topic of our relationship, in hopes of avoiding any further misunderstanding. To be clear, Cell, I am neither romantically or sexually attracted to you, and I have no intention of pursuing a relationship of such nature with you or, in fact, anyone. Moving forward, I would appreciate it if we could keep our relationship as professional as possible."

She opened her eyes too see what kind of reaction the statement made, and to no surprise, Cell was glaring at the camera, at her, with absolute daggers. For a split second Calliope considered if it was maybe smarter to not outright reject a mass murdering psychopath. Her female colleagues and classmates from school had told her enough horror stories of men reacting to their advances being rejected. Perhaps it would have been better not to tempt fate.

" _Well, if you say so._ " While regarding the camera, Cell's suddenly smirked and spoke with a warm chuckle.

Somehow the change in his demeanor was even more unnerving than the threatening silence had been. Calliope had anticipated resistance, but not apparent acceptance. "And just to clarify, you did understand everything I just said, right?"

 _"Of course I did._ " With this, Cell offered a shrug and sounded somewhere between serious and amused. " _But I think its also important for you to understand that I can be quite patient when needed. Certainly long enough for you to come to your senses_."

As she should have expected, Cell must have thought she was 'playing hard to get'. It was a struggle for her not to immediately snap back with a sharp comment about how ridiculous an assumption that was to make, but she managed to bite her tongue. She wouldn't be baited into another argument, Calliope reminded herself. Settling for taking a deep breath, her jaw clenched so tight it hurt, she reminded herself that she was not going to lose her composure again.

There were few who could consistently press Calliope's buttons to rouse her emotions to such a state. Usually, she managed to avoid those people like the plague. There were even fewer people who seemed dead set on causing her such distress.

" _Are you still there, Calliope? I can hear you breathing. You're not upset, are you?_ "

She opened her mouth briefly, intending to mention how Cell sounded like a crazy person. That his naturally narcissistic personality was grating on her last nerve. How he couldn't seriously think that any attempt to woo her would succeed. Snapping her jaw shut, taking one more breath, Calliope decided that this was enough for tonight. "… I'm going to go now. I'll see you in the morning."

On the screen that she was trying to avoid looking at, but couldn't help herself, Cell frowned back at her suddenly. He was quieter now but had lost the tone of being amused. " _Calliope, I hope you don't think I'm trying to 'mess with you' again. Because I'm not_."

"Okay." She wasn't quite sure what else to say in this situation and found she felt both tired and uneasy. Calliope wasn't sure she could maintain her composure much longer.

" _I want you to understand that my interests are genuine._ " Cell still didn't sound like he was back to mocking her as he pressed the issue. Calliope couldn't bare to look at the screen further while her cheeks flushed and her stomach knotted up again.

"Okay." This time Calliope sighed through her nose and closed her eyes, while her face flushed warmly. She couldn't dignify this topic with any further input.

There was another, thankfully brief, awkward silence between them. At last, Cell seemed to run out of things to say in an attempt to keep their discussion going.

"... _So. I will see you in the morning._ "

"Yeah."

" _Right. Well. Goodnight, Calliope._ " When she did chance a glance at the screen and Cell, who still gazed at the drone, he didn't have quite as hard set on his face as before.

"Mmhmm." Finally gesturing HoloCat to cut the call, and left in the dark cockpit of the ship, Calliope attempted to collect herself. She groaned inwardly and decided to take some precaution against any further disruptions, "HoloCat if Cell tries to call back any time tonight, tell him I'm not here."

After three hours of travel, including one careful stop at an abandoned city to fuel her ship back up, Calliope arrived at the Minnows Solstice lab. The new lab was settled miles from the nearest city, nestled off-center of a large forest. Unlike the last lab, Violet occupied that Calliope was familiar with- which was a sprawling estate on the outskirts of East City- the building she found was of a modern design with sleek, sharp lines, and much smaller. Surrounded by a manicured lawn, and further out by a tall stone fence, Calliope opted to land outside the property in the small parking lot.

The night made everything outside of the halogen lamps on the property all the darker. Once her ship's systems were shut down, it was dead quiet. She stepped out into the warm night, and double checked that she had everything she might need on hand.

HoloCat was synced up to an earpiece and readied. That pistol pilfered earlier from the government agent was snugly tucked in the back of her jeans, easily reached under the sturdy leather jacket she had found in the back of her closet in her own lab. She snapped on a pair of latex gloves, then another. Lastly, Calliope slipped on a respirator mask, pressing it against her face to ensure a good seal, as well as a set of clear safety goggles. She did not want to appear overly suspicious but did not want to risk her own health on the chance that something was going around in the Minnows Solstice lab.

Standing at the back of her small ship, Calliope eyed over the other supplies she had brought. A few gallons of bleach and a half-dozen capsules containing various things would be useful if there was genuinely an outbreak. Portable decontamination and quarantine units, replacement lab equipment, hazmat suits. These were all things that should be available in the Solstice lab. For now, her personal protective measures seemed enough.

Perhaps, she considered, while looking over herself and her supplies, she was being a bit paranoid.

It was better to be paranoid than exposed and infected with super ebola, or whatever Violet was working on these days, Calliope reasoned with herself.

Calliope locked up, tried not to look into the inky darkness of the woods for fear of losing her nerve, and headed towards the front gate.

"... _Yes?_ " The intercom at the gate crackled to life, and a faint voice greeted Calliope.

"It's Doctor Calliope Merriweather. I'm here to see Doctor Winters."

"... _Yes. Of course... We've been expecting you... Come through_." The intercom went silent without waiting for further response. The metal gate before Calliope was silent for nearly a minute before the internal mechanisms in the wall began to groan, pulling the gate open.

The gravel path up to the lab gave Calliope a better view of the grounds. The luscious lawn was beginning to grow taller than Violet would normally otherwise allow, and there appeared to be some weeds springing up along the flowerbeds along the front of the building. All the windows along the ground floor were tinted and looked like black pools in the night. At the entrance stood large double steel doors, a set of security cameras watched her approach. It wasn't until she reached out to the handle of one door that a soft buzzer sounded, the latch clicked off, and she was able to enter.

From the warm night into the small, concrete walls of the entrance, Calliope stepped into the dimly lit room. The door at the other end was as heavy as the ones she had just passed through, with clear warnings about the nature of things that took place in the lab, that only authorized personnel were allowed past this point. Another faint buzzer sounded and the door slowly pulled open by a slim man in a white lab coat.

"Miss Merriweather. Hello." He greeted her with a voice that was friendly but somehow dull.

"It's _Doctor_ Merriweather," Calliope said mildly and found herself staring at the man that greeted her. His short dark hair was messy, and his skin was a sickly pale with a sheen of sweat.

"Of course. Miss-Doctor-Merriweather." The man, who she assumed was either a lab assistant or researcher, nodded as he corrected himself with a wide smile on his thin lips. He gestured for her to follow him. "Violet has been... So excited, for you to visit us."

Calliope eyed the man, who introduced himself as Quin. There was something about his mannerisms that was off; the way he kept a constant soft smile, the awkward gait of his speech, something in the way he held himself was too stiff. He had guided her through the ground level where everything was bathed in harsh fluorescent lights. There was an open floor here that seemed administrative in the front, and personal quarters near the rear. It wouldn't be surprising that the staff would be able to take refuge in the same building they worked, given how remote the location was.

They had stepped into an elevator and thus far Quin hadn't said anything further than his initial greeting. He pressed the button for the lower 3rd level which glowed with a red light, and when he pressed a card clipped to his person against a scanner near the panel, the button lit green and the elevator gently jostled down. Calliope assumed he was taking him to a secure level of the lab, which seemed odd. Violet could have very well met her at the ground level. It was possible that she was busy. Violet Winters was known for her dedicated work ethic.

"Has there been any illness going around? Doctor Winters did not seem well the last I spoke with her." Calliope asked as they stood in the elevator, to break the silence.

"I can... assure you. All is well." Was all that Quin said, with the same strange way of speaking. He had a faint smile and his eyes looked bloodshot and surrounded with darkened flesh. Calliope tried not to stare at him too obviously.

"Doctor Merriweather..." Seeming to pick up on the eerie feeling, HoloCat whispered in Calliope's earpiece. It sounded worried. "I don't have a network connection down here... I won't be able to call anyone until I'm able to reconnect..."

She didn't respond except to discreetly pat the device at her wrist, as she couldn't very well calm the AI with words.

The lights of this level seemed more intense than upstairs, and without windows made Calliope forget that it was the middle of the night. There were at least a dozen people gathered down there, but all hushed and still. Out of the middle of the gathering, she picked out Violet, who strode forward with arms raised in greeting.

"Calliope, dearest, _there_ you are." Violet sounded nowhere near her usual self, there was a certain forceful quality to her voice. She looked further deteriorated than the last time Calliope had set eyes on her. Her white hair had been let down around her shoulders, her eyes at first looked bloodshot but as she drew closer the sclera was actually turning black. She looked as pale and covered in sweat as her fellows- her clothes were in a similar state of disarray, her dress shirt untucked and the top few buttons were left undone.

"Violet." Calliope greeted her fake-aunt cautiously. Looking between Violet who eyed her with a strangely hungry look, as the rest of the gathered also turned their eyes to her.

"Dearest, look at you. What is... What is with this manner of dress?" Stepping closer still, Violet gestured at Calliope's frame. From her protective face ware to the leather jacket and jeans. The woman who she had always looked up to scrunched up her face in disapproval. "Have you... lost... your sense of professional decorum?"

"Aunt Violet, you look ill. I am concerned that your whole staff is ill." Calliope took a step back, sensing something dangerous in the air here. Then, with a stronger conviction, she took two steps towards Violet and spoke in a harsh whisper. "Violet, you need to be honest with me. What is going on? Has there been an outbreak of some kind?"

Looking into Violet's eyes, which unblinkingly stared back, she was thankful that she had taken precautions. At the moment there was no way to tell whether or not whatever was affecting these people was airborne or not.

"Calliope. Oh, my dear, suspicious little thing." As she cooed this, Violet stepped closer to grip Calliope by the shoulders. After a long-held gaze, she began walking about her adoptive niece like a shark circling prey. She spoke with more clarity now. "There _is something here_. A discovery we've made of something... Most... Marvelous. I would not dare insult her with the term 'infection'... But, it has brought us a certain... Unity. A _oneness_. She has come and has opened our eyes and our hearts and sloughed off the excess."

"Wait, _who_? What are you talking about?" Calliope had been so focused on trying to focus on Violet that the people circling around them slipped her attention.

About six of the men and women that were gathered among them knelt down in a circle around Calliope and Violet, who continued speaking with ever-fraying logic.

"It always amazed me that you... always manage to make yourself... So lonely... Don't you ever tire of it, Calliope?" Violet was in front of her again, with the sickening sweetness in her voice that she use to have. She reached out to gently take Calliope's face in her hands. Her fingers started playing at the edge of the respirator mask. "You could _join us_ , dearest... We could so use a bright mind like yours..."

The suddenness of what happened left Calliope scrambling for her senses. She had failed to notice when the circle around them had taken guns from their person, or when their barrels were pointed inside the mouths of the Minnows Solstice staff. All at once Violet was clawing at the mask on her face, and a crack-pow sounded in perfect sync. Calliope found herself splashed from all sides in red and black, her ears stunned by the sound while struggling against Violet.

" _God Dammit Violet!_ " Calliope screamed without thinking, with a newfound panic as the mask was torn from her face. She managed to bring a leg up between their bodies and fiercely kicked Violet away.

It was then that the smell hit her. A musk similar to mildew, with a certain sweet note in the scent. She immediately held her breath, fearing the worst, and would have fished out a new mask from her bag if the remaining staff didn't turn to look at her. Quin was suddenly upon her, latched onto her arm with a grip that dug his fingers into her skin. With her other hand, Calliope pulled the pistol from her back and swung it to sharply crack against his temple.

Pulling away, she knew she had to get out of here- or at least away from Violet's new cult- Calliope spun around and dashed back towards the elevator. There wouldn't be time to wait for the lift to open the doors, she knew, and so she turns down an adjacent hallway.

"Calliope, you get back here _this instant_ , young lady!" Behind her Violet screeched, and the sound of footfalls hinted to the pack of maddened staff were giving chase.

Calliope had rounded another corner, and then another, going deeper into the level. She didn't have the chance to stop for several minutes until she slipped quietly into a custodial closet. Taking a new mask from her bag she placed it over her mouth and nose and secured the straps at the back of her head. The splatters of blood felt thick on her exposed neck, and her shirt was heavily stained and wet against her skin. She tried not to focus on how filthy she felt, or how likely it was that she was exposed.

That suicide circle must have been meant to spread their contagion. It seemed mad that they would sacrifice themselves to such an end. The entire lab was robbed of their sanity it seemed.

Pressed against the wall in the dim room, she aimed the pistol at the door, flipping the safety off, and stayed frozen in place. She tried to get her breathing under control again and waited. She tried to ignore the specks of red across the safety glasses she wore. Getting out would likely require harming, or possibly killing these people. This thought wasn't ideal, but Calliope was not going to join this madness without a fight.

"HoloCat, please tell me you can get some kind of connection. Hack the Minnows Solstice systems if you have to." Calliope whispered into her wrist, without taking her eyes off the door. She held her breath as shadows flicked through the light that shown near the floor, from under the door. Several moments passed in silence, and no intrusion at the door. "... HoloCat?"

When she chanced a glance at her wrist, she had to look again and noted with certain distress that HoloCat was missing from its usual place. It must have slipped off in the struggle with Quin.

"... Fuck."


	19. White Knight Syndrome

Chapter 18: White Knight Syndrome

* * *

Happy Valentines Day/ Singles Awareness Day! Have A new chapter of some things and some stuff! I love you Internet Strangers!

* * *

That had gone _fine_ , Cell told himself. It could have gone better. But at the very least it hadn't broken down into a messy interaction with Calliope rambling angrily. No accusations that he was an omnicidal psychopath- while it wasn't altogether false, it sounded so dirty when she said it. For now he had taken to staring silently at the drone that lingered at his arena, waiting.

Any minute now, he guessed, she'd be calling back.

He tried not to think about her plainly laid-out rejection in cold, clinical terms. The thought brought a strange ache in his chest that Cell was not willing to accept. Calliope would come around. He could be patient.

Really, she should have been ecstatic that he felt the way he did. Not that she would have issues attracting suitors in the first place, being young and attractive. But for what he was offering- companionship with a being who was _literally perfect_ \- it seemed absurd that she should have no interest.

Cell could be patient, however. Staring at the drone- because even if she didn't call back she would surely monitor this frequency intermittently, see him, and he knew it would weigh on her conscious- he waited. An hour passed in silence. Then another, before Cell could pick up the minute pitch of the speakers of the drone perched on a pillar coming to life. For an instant, his chest swelled with relief. He knew it would be just a matter of time before Calliope reached back out.

" _Well... Hello there, handsome._ "

Cell frowned and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He would know Calliope's voice anywhere. That was not her. It sounded like a woman, so Nash hadn't gotten drunk and in the system again, but it must have been someone that had access to the system. But there was something distinctly wrong with the voice that Cell couldn't quite pin down.

"And who is this? Are you one of Calliope's employees?" Cell responded with a clearly icy tone. He was in no mood to deal with another incident like Nash. "I would have thought for a building full of supposedly intelligent people that you would have better sense than to contact me directly."

" _My, my, aren't we... Abrasive... And strapping._ " The woman spoke softly, followed by a chuckle that had a certain unsettling quality to it. " _No... No, little Calliope hasn't joined us... Not yet..._ "

The woman sounded well on the way to deranged, Cell mentally noted. "That doesn't exactly explain _who_ you are or _what_ exactly you think you doing talking to me."

" _The who... Won't matter soon enough, dear-_ "

"I'm going to stop you right there, because it does matter, and I don't appreciate how familiar you're being." Cell cut in, holding a hand up in a stiff gesture. He was intent on trying to cut through the inane direction this woman seemed to be going. "Now, if you don't answer my questions, I'm going to take this drone, I will track you down, and I will find you."

" _Mmm_..." The woman on the line purred as if thinking, and unlike Nash seemed to be completely unaffected by the thinly-veiled threat Cell posed. She spoke up suddenly, in that strange way, with certain notes of her voice hitting low octaves. " _Well... In that case... Come on then... Big boy..._ _ **Come and get me.**_ "

" _Excuse me?_ " Cell sneered with surprise. A taunt like that was not what he expected from what he assumed was some unbalanced researcher. For the umpteenth time in as many days, he wondered if these humans had just lost their better senses.

" _ **Don't listen to her!**_ " In a frantic voice that was surprisingly full of fear for an AI, HoloCat was suddenly shouting. "- _She's gone crazy! This facility is compromised! Doctor Merriw-_ "

Then just as quickly as the strange call started, it ended, with an abrupt cacophony of static that faded to quiet. The drone, which had been firmly gripping to the stone pillar before Cell, dropped to the ground as if its connection was completely severed.

"HoloCat? What was that about Doctor Merriweather?" Cell called out, unsure what had just taken place. He went over to the drone, and when he held it in his palm examined it closely. In their normal operation they were constantly moving to some small degree to compensate for wind, or repositioning the cameras and sensors for optimum efficacy. But now the faux-insect didn't so much as twitch. He lightly tapped the drone once, twice, with the tip of a black nail. Still no response. "HoloCat?"

Cell would have been perfectly content staying at his arena if it hadn't been for that fearful screeching from the HoloCat AI. He was not mistaken, and it was possible Calliope had roped herself into some kind of trouble.

"I guess this is what I'm doing with my night. _Lovely_." Cell said this to no one in particular, and breathed an annoyed sigh through his nose. He clenched his fist around the apparently broken drone, not so tight as to crush it, and blasted off into the air, directing himself towards Nicky Town.

Traveling to Nicky Town did not take long, but on the approach to the Minnows, BioSolution lab Cell found himself pausing midair before descending. The entire town was quiet, empty of life except for a small handful of minuscule energy inside the lab. There was also a suspicious lack of drones patrolling the small area around the building. Usually, Calliope had kept at least a few fluttering around, as a sort of makeshift security system. Cell could only assume that whatever had taken down the drone at his arena had also taken those in Nicky Town down too.

Cell landed at the front entrance to the lab and made a beeline towards where he heard voices, neither of which belonged Calliope.

"Hey, Nash." They were in the main lab, with sparse conversation, "Does Doctor Merriweather have a doppelganger, or maybe a twin, with pink hair?"

"Nah, not that I know of. Why?" The second voice he recognized as Nash, and Cell internally groaned at the thought of having to deal with the drunk tech support here, in person.

He entered the main lab area where they were situated, their backs to him, both fiddling around on computers that had been newly placed on the lab's tables. Cell approached silently, for the moment eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Well there's this chick that was on late night news, looks a lot like the Doc. But, like, with pink hair and a tan." The other man said, who was scrolling through some kind of news feed on his monitor. He sported a cherry-red mohawk and several tattoos around his neck and all around looked to take after some kind of punk fashion.

"Shit, dude, maybe its one of her clones? Send me a link." Nash replied without looking up from the two stately monitors set up before him. He typed away at the keyboard that was balanced in his lap, alternatively moving a mouse about the tabletop when needed.

Over the tech's shoulder, Cell spotted an article populating on the page and was taken aback to see the familiar face if Calliope's, with lively green eyes, bubble-gum pink hair and a coquettish smile. There would be time to investigate the location of the clones later, he reminded himself.

" _Ah-hem!_ " Cell loudly cleared his throat to get the attention of the present staff. The one with the mohawk whipped around right away and, upon seeing him, his eyes went wide and he let out a rather girlish shout. From there the young man half-stumbled half-fell off the stool he was perched on and ducked behind the workstation.

"N-Nash?" The young man whispered harshly, with one arm stuck out to slap at the other's arm.

"One sec. Dude. _One sec._ " Nash said offhandedly but still hadn't turned around yet. His typing picked up pace for several seconds before he struck a key forcefully and also turned about. He eyed Cell with a surprisingly blank face before speaking up again. "Oh. 'Sup?" Nash greeted all too casually that grated on Cell's nerves.

"Two things." Cell said, at the time not acknowledging the polar opposite reactions the techs were displaying. The more fearful of the two poked his head up from behind the table enough to look up at him. He reached out to lightly place the drone on the drone from the arena on the tabletop that separated the techs from Cell. "You need to address the flaws in your system because I will not stand for having random crazy people soliciting me for attention at all hours of the night."

At this, the two men exchanged a look and after a moment Nash was the first to speak up, in a much calmer leveled tone than any time when he had been drunk. "And the other thing?"

"I need to speak with Calliope."

"She's not here," Nash said flatly, without a change to his somewhat bored, somewhat blank expression.

"Well, when is she expected to be back?" To this Nash shrugged in response. By this point, Cell had recrossed his arms and had focused his attention at glaring down his nose at the hacker. "Where has she gone too?"

"Family emergency." When Nash shrugged again with his reply, Cell narrowed his eyes at him, and ground his teeth together in frustration. Calliope didn't even have any other family. Even if she had a lead on the other clones, she certainly couldn't consider them 'family'.

There was a tense moment of silence between the two, and Cell mentally acknowledged to himself that he would not put up with a staring contest with _Nash_ of all people.

"... Fine, okay." Nash finally relented after several moments of being glared at and turned to the other man. "Rory, could you call her, see where she's at, maybe mention her big green buddy is here to visit?"

The other man, Rory, ducked back behind the desk. Cell could hear him frantically whispering to his own HoloCat device, trying to get through to Calliope.

"So, what happened with the drone?" Asked Nash, who had set aside the keyboard in his lap to begin examining the small metal insect device on the table. He didn't look back up at Cell but had already started pulling up what appeared to be diagnostic reports on the HoloCat at his wrist. His attitude shifted to intensely examine the strings of data on the holographic screen.

Cell continued glaring at Nash and mentally tried to find a good way of explaining the strange call. He could very well say that a random woman, who sounded mentally unstable, had flirted with and taunted him. That had been strange, but those weren't the most important details.

"Some woman, who failed to identify herself, used this drone to contact me and attempted to lure me _somewhere_. Before I could get more out of her one of your-" Cell made a noncommittal gesture at the HoloCat device Nash was using before continuing, "Cat blob, AI things cut on and screamed about how she was crazy. That a facility had been compromised, and sounded like it had been about to mention something about Calliope, but was cut off. The call dropped, and the drone fell out of the air."

"Hmm..." Without looking up from the holographic screen Nash nodded.

"It's also worth noting that all the other drones aren't in circulation outside."

"Huh..." Nash's features had pinched together in a more thoughtful way. "Did the audio cut out cleanly when the call dropped?"

"No. It cut with loud static. Why does that matter?"

"If it ended cleanly that means HoloCat used the proper protocols to disconnect. Static could indicate interference with the connection or HoloCat being otherwise forced to end the call." Nash nodded mostly to himself and flicked through more information before turning back to the computer back behind him. He had retrieved the keyboard, alternately looking between screens with new windows pulled up on the computer.

Cell stared at the back of Nash's head for a few dragging moments, and could already feel his patience waning. "Well?"

"Yeah, I'm working on it," Nash spoke over his shoulder but did not turn around. In any other situation, the lack of acknowledgment from a lowly hacker would have been unacceptable. For now, Cell accepted it as a necessary annoyance.

Off to the side, the other one, Rory, had collected himself enough to return to his own chair and his own computer. He had hunched his shoulders hunched and a frown on his face. He looked worried and leaned closer to his busy compatriot. "Um. Nash?"

"What?" Nash didn't look up from the screen. When Cell turned his attention to Rory, the mohawked youth froze up and kept looking between him and his friend. In turn, Cell had sharpened a glare down at Rory, but Nash spoke up before he was able to attempt to persuade any information out. "Dude. Rory. Use your words."

"I-uh-I can't get through to her." Rory stumbled over his words, shaking his head. He held up his arm, to show the HoloCat avatar at his wrist, which had a similar purple glow to Nash's. The cutesy frowning face had an error code above its head.

"Did you get sent to voice mail?" Nash was the first one to ask but still didn't spare a glance from his screens.

"Um-no. The call didn't go through." Again shaking his head as if lacking answers, Rory gave a hard look to Nash as if trying to get his attention.

" _Why_ didn't the call go through?" Cell took up the question with an edge to his voice, and his gaze maintained on Rory.

"Well-Ah- It looks like... Doctor Merriweather's HoloCat isn't active. It's literally not able to communicate on the network." Rory stumbled over his words, speaking in a rush propelled by fear. "Its possible her device doesn't have an active connection, o-or was otherwise deactivated, or possibly destroyed."

"Can you tell _what_ exactly happened?" When Rory again stuttered, unable to produce a substantial answer Cell scoffed. "Well, go on. Do whatever you need to do to find an answer."

With that, Rory managed to mutter something that wasn't quite words of agreement and had turned back around to his own computer. Like Nash, he was working between the screen and his HoloCat to try and track down what had happened. Staying rooted to his spot between the rows of workstations, close enough to observe both the techs, Cell watched them for a few long minutes. Outside of the clicking of keys at the keyboards and the occasional thoughtful mutter to try and work through their respective diagnostic results, it was quiet.

"Huh." This time Nash spoke up before continuing with a tone that reflected a certain intrigue. "Yeah, looks like the last system to access this drone was actually Calliope's account. Had to have been her HoloCat."

While he managed to maintain a neutral-to-threatening face, Cell couldn't stop from growing concerned. It certainly hadn't been Calliope on the last call, and she wasn't likely to leave her AI assistant without reason. " _Where_?"

"I don't know. We shut off location tracking." Nash still didn't look away from his reading, yet again.

"What? _Why_ would you do that?!" When Cell shouted this last part, Rory flinched before going back to his screens, and Nash appeared unperturbed.

"Because that kind of information is potentially traceable by the government spooks." With how calmly Nash said this, it was difficult to tell whether or not it was a serious concern or a paranoid assumption. When Cell continued glaring down at him, he eventually continued to explain, as if it should be obvious, "... Because they suspect she has some kind of information or connection to you? Which, I mean, isn't exactly _inaccurate_ , but we were hoping to avoid being waterboarded and possibly killed at some government black site. We took precautions."

"Well-turn it back on! Don't you have some kind of remote access to these things to find them?!" Cell decided not to focus on 'government spooks' interest in Calliope. He refused to think that something like that happening may have been a slight oversight on his part. Clearly, she was well-equipped to deal with this eventuality. Doctor Gero would have prepared her for something like that.

It was entirely possible that she was fine.

"We can't remotely access it if it's not _on the network._ " Nash broke his eyes away from his computer for just a moment to explain. He went on at a slower pace as if he was trying to troubleshoot some mundane issue. "If we can't talk to Calliope's HoloCat, we can't do anything to it."

Having had enough, his teeth grinding together, Cell closed the distance between himself and the flippant hacker. In a smooth motion, he spun the chair that Nash occupied around, grabbed the skinny nerd roughly by the collar. He leaned in and spoke in a low voice that reflected how much danger Nash was putting himself in. "I don't care what you have to do, _fix it_."

For an instant, there had been a look of surprise across Nash's face when he was grabbed and pulled up several inches from the chair he occupied. He had put his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but his expression settled on a firm, " _Dude_. I can't do anything to it unless it's on the network."

There was still Rory here. Cell decided that one nerd would have to be enough to do the job. In the same instant that he had the thought, a pinging sound rang out from the computer. Nash turned around enough to look at the screen and the new notification that flashed up. It appeared to be an incoming video chat, with the other party's indicated on the screen.

 _ **MINNOWS-SOLSTICE-LABORATORY-(SECURE)**_

 _ **CONTAINMENT LAB 03**_

 _ **User: '**_

Seeing this detail, Cell gently tossed Nash to the side- where the hacker crashed into Rory where they both grumbled- and hit to accept the video chat.

The window collapsed for a split second before opening to a larger screen, where the video went live with what looked like another laboratory. In the foreground, there was a woman, with a heavy-duty respirator mask that covered nose and mouth, and every visible inch covered in red-black splatterings of blood. Her green eyes looked to dart around the screen below before settling on the camera.

" _Come on, pick up... Nash?_ " As soon as she spoke- in a hushed voice- Cell knew without a doubt that it was Calliope. And, of course, she had managed to get herself into some kind of trouble. When she saw him, she froze, blinked, and said in a raised whisper. " _Cell? What are you doing in my lab? Where's Nash?_ "

Cell gathered himself from the initial shock at the sight of her, and growled out much more aggressively than he had intended, " _Calliope Merriweather-Gero_ , what the Hell have you gotten yourself into?!"

On the screen, Calliope looked taken aback, but she recovered quick enough that her eyes narrowed and she returned with a calmer, colder response. " _I'm dealing with a family emergency._ "

"Family emergency-?! Is that suppose to be some kind of joke?" Cell had started with a note of disbelief, even anger, and frustration. But the longer he looked at Calliope, the more a vice gripped about something his chest with a strange sense of panic setting in.

She was in danger, clearly, and Cell had no idea where she was. Here she was covered in blood, her voice quiet so as to not be detected by a potential threat. The detail that clinched it was the consistent look of fear in her eyes that he would recognize anywhere. He could not abide this, not now that he was perfect and should have had all the power he needed to keep her safe.

" _Stop yelling!_ " Calliope whispered loudly, looking behind her before she looked back at the screen. She appeared shaken and attempting to hold her composure together.

"Calliope, where are you? Are you hurt?" Cell asked, in a calmer voice. He had leaned forward with his hands placed on the desktop, his gaze alternating between the small camera on the monitor and the video's feed.

" _I'm fine. I just-_ "

"No, no clearly you're _not fine._ " He cut in before she could continue, this time with a greater note of irritation. "You're covered in blood!"

Calliope looked down at herself as if she just now remembered the various stains covering her clothes and hair and skin. She gave a small shrug and replied in a disconcertingly casual way. "... _Well, it's not my blood_."

"Is that suppose to be better!?"

" _Look, Cell, I don't have a lot of time._ " Frustration was starting to leak into her words, as quietly as she spoke. Again Calliope looked behind her, then when she turned back appeared to be rifling through something next to the computer she occupied. " _Is Nash there? I need to speak to him._ "

"I'm here boss. What's up?" From the side where he was tossed Nash poked his head under Cell's arm, in front of the monitor. Despite a pointed glare in his direction, he slid himself under Cell's bulk to sit back at his chair, hunched down to fit. "Oh. Wow, that is a _lot_ of blood."

" _Nash, hey, I need you to try and access this system and see if there's an onsite nuclear device. I need it activated, and set to detonate in... Let's call it five minutes? Maybe ten to be safe._ " On the screen, Calliope appeared to be distracted by a pile of papers she was flipping through. She scanned each document intensely, with an occasional glance over her shoulder towards somewhere out of the camera's range.

"Uhh, I mean... I can... try?" At this request, even Nash looked a bit shocked and unsure.

At his own computer Rory had picked himself back up, and instead of returning to his previous task had taken to quietly, if nervously, observing.

"Nash if you touch that keyboard I will _snap your neck._ " Cell growled between clenched teeth, not taking his eyes off the monitor. At this threat Nash, who had his hands hovering above the keys, eyed Cell, and after a moment took his hands back to set in his knees. "Calliope, _where are you?_ You tell me this instant!"

It seemed absurd that she wouldn't answer immediately with where she was, how to get to her, and what exactly the situation was. Her eyes averted the paperwork after he spoke as if she had to think about how to answer. With a newfound resolution, Calliope shook her head while affirming her response. " _No. I can't do that Cell._ "

There was an odd sense of deja vu with this particular conversation, with an unappealing twist added. Cell demanding to know where Calliope had gotten to, Calliope having absconded from where she was last sighted. Just as she had in the lab in Central City, where Cell had to threaten a portion of her staff just to get her to talk to him again.

With this thought in mind, Cell reached to roughly grasp at Nash's head to accentuate his point. "Calliope. I'd like to remind you that I'm not above killing your technical staff if you don't give me your location."

On the screen, Calliope finally looked away from the paperwork she had found to glare into the camera. When she spoke it was edged with sarcastic anger, only slightly above a whisper. " _Oh, right, because threatening people I care about is so attractive! How could I possibly resist your charms when you're threatening to, what, crush Nash's skull?_ "

"Wait... Am I a hostage?" Nash said this to himself, though he didn't move to struggle. His laid-back objections were not acknowledged by either Calliope or Cell. "Not cool."

Cell knew she said this out of frustration and stress. It didn't stop it from hurting, and immediately turning into a burning rage. He spat back with equal wry humor, raising his voice, "And this is coming from the girl "genius" who seems to _routinely_ makes the most reckless, immature decisions that she possibly can! I am genuinely surprised that you haven't managed to _get yourself killed before this point!_ "

" _Reckless? That is a fucking joke. If I was being 'reckless' I would be inviting you down to the lab full of crazy fucks so you can possibly be infected with whatever-the-hell is going around, so that instead of just being a regular omnicidal psychopath, you'd be a fanatical omnicidal psychopath with god-knows how much cognitive degradation!_ " Calliope's voice never raised far above a whisper but grew sharper with every word she said. What he could see of her face, which was not much, twisted with a scowl.

"Why would you go to a place with an outbreak like this? Do you know how insane that sounds?!"

" _No more insane than you sound with every conversation we have._ "

Cell would have responded with a remark regarding how obvious the brain injury was with how she was currently acting. Movement out of the corner of the feed stopped him.

" _Miss-Doctor-Merriweather~?_ " A halting attempt at a sing-song voice came over the feed, and Calliope froze. " _There... you... are._ "

She spun away from the monitor, jumped up from her chair, and with her back to the monitor shuffled off to the side. In the sizable room Calliope occupied, that had the look of a lab full of equipment and bright lights, the person she was talking to came into full view. It was a man who looked disheveled and sickly. Something was wrong with his eyes. The way he walked was strange, stiff, as he approached Calliope.

" _We... Very much wanted... To bring you into the fold..._ " The man spoke in a way that sounded as if it was supposed to be cordial but held a certain hostile inflection. The way his voice sounded and the way he moved, seemed inconsistent with standard human biology.

" _Quin, I need you to stay away from me._ " Calliope said from somewhere off the screen. The man, Quin, gave paused before the camera, focused off screen where she was likely standing.

" _We will all... be united in Her embrace. Whether willing... Or not... There is no need to fear_."

" _Quin, I have a centrifuge, and I am_ _ **not afraid to use it!**_ " There were scrapping noises as Calliope said this, with a grunt of effort and non-too hidden fear. Quin didn't appear fazed by the odd threat and continued his slow pace forward.

" _Hey! You!_ " Cell called out, on suspicion, for the moment not keeping his temper or volume in check. The way this man talked sounded all-too-familiar to a certain unwelcome caller. It couldn't have been coincidence, Cell decided.

Quin stopped dead in his tracks, and slowly tilted his head towards the camera, at an angle that most humans wouldn't normally adopt. He took a step towards the camera, and the disturbing details of his person became clearer. There was blood, with streaks of black in it, streaming down one side of his head. His eyes which appeared bloodshot at first had darker veins than Cell had ever seen in human morphology. His pale skin looked sweaty, the man appeared sick but had a certain fervor in his gaze and a twitchy smile.

" _Well... Hello there._ " Quin still maintained his head at a low crooked angle, which he was slow to correct, but appeared captivated by Cell for the moment.

"Quin, was it? I'm assuming you're _friends_ with a certain lady that called me earlier this evening." Cell said this and could have sworn he saw a flicker of recognition in those sickly eyes. "She didn't give me her name, but she it sounded intent on inviting me to your lab."

Quin's twitchy smile grew toothy and joyous. " _Ooh, you assume... Correctly... She very much... Would like to have you... Too._ "

"Well, that sounds _lovely_. Why don't you tell me where you are, and we can have a long discussion about... Whatever it is you're talking about?" With this Cell sneered with a wolfish grin of his own. This plan was working fine. Calliope had the chance to get away to safety, and this Quin character would give away their location with enthusiasm.

Then it would just be a matter of getting to this mystery lab, killing anyone who appeared to be sick, and getting Calliope to safety. Then he could chastise her about what qualified as a 'family emergency'.

Anything else that Quin may have said was cut off with a short cry as a roundish object smashed into the side of his head. As soon as he fell, Calliope rushed forward from off the camera, brandishing a rounded appliance with some effort.

She had lunged at the man, low enough to cut off everything except her arms out of the screen- where she raised the hefty machine above her head to swiftly bring it down a series of times, each one punctuated with a _thunking_ sound until it ended with a wet crunch.

"Calliope?! Calliope!" Nothing could ever go smoothly, could it, Cell internally cursed as he found himself shouting. He had pressed Nash out of the way, with enough force that the hacker rolled away to crash into a wall. "Damnit, answer me!"

At first, she didn't reply. A tense moment passed before Calliope rose, breathing heavily with a certain fiery look in her eyes. Fresh blood streaked with black dripped from her face over the clear goggles and a respirator mask. She addressed the camera again, her voice like ice. " _Stop. Yelling_."  
It took Cell several moments to gather himself at the sight of her. This was so unlike the Calliope he knew. She was meant to be sequestered quiet in a lab, trudging away at whatever scientific endeavor took her fancy, not bashing mad men's heads open with lab equipment. He had to shake himself from distracting thoughts. Wherever she was, there had to be more of these infected individuals.

Forcing himself to calm down enough to maintain a steady composure, Cell restrained himself from yelling. "Calliope, stop this foolishness _right now!_ You tell me where you are, and I will come save you."

" _Absolutely not. The last thing I need is to have_ _ **you**_ _exposed to whatever-the-Hell is going around here._ " She said this while looking at her hands, which appeared slick with blood. With a few careful, ginger motions she had slipped the gloves off, inside out so that the fluid didn't drip off of them. She replaced them just as quickly with a double layer of fresh gloves. " _Nash, please look into that thing for me. Also, maybe see if Rory can get one of the portable quarantine units up and running._ "

"Okay Boss!" Nash had skirted closer in his wheeled office chair and earned himself another glare from Cell. He shrugged, as if not finding anything wrong with such enabling behavior.

When he turned back to the screen, Calliope was stuffing paperwork into a bag. It looked like she was preparing to end the conversation. Cell spoke up and felt a foreign sense of desperation in trying to get through to her better sense. "Calliope-"

" _I have to go._ " Of course, she continued ignoring reason.

"Don't you dare disconnect this call young lady!"

" _I'll try to be back in a few hours if I can._ "

"Calliope!"

The last thing the camera showed was Calliope, rolling her eyes before her hand raised to hit a button on the keyboard. The screen that she had appeared in shut down, and among the other windows where Nash had been running diagnostics the message that the call had ended up. In a flash of anger, Cell had slammed closed fists into the tabletop, which caused the wooden material to splinter and crash down to the floor- taking the monitor, computer, and attached peripherals with it.

"You!" Whirling to face Nash again, Cell again grabbed the hacker by his collar, "Get that call back!"

"Uh," Nash again had his hands up in a neutral sign of surrender. He looked between Cell's glare, to the computer set up that had tumbled to the floor, and back at Cell. It was agitating how calm he was in this situation. "I'm not sure how that will help Calliope and the whole... Talking zombie thing."

"And I suppose you have a better idea?" Cell decided at that point that if anything out of Nash's mouth was anything the least bit unhelpful, he would put everyone in the lab out of their misery.

"Well, if I can fix up my computer then I could probably get into the Solstice systems, and figure out where she is. Then you can fly off, all white-knight style, and save my boss. Who, technically, is no longer my boss."

While ignoring the very last part, Nash's offer did give Cell pause. " _Probably?_ "

"Yeah. Probably. Maybe." The hacker glanced down at Cell's hands and mentioned a little quieter as if the thought was on his mind as well. "But we definitely won't find out if you kill me."

Cell blinked and was, for a moment, surprised by Nash's offer. He thought it would take at least another round of threats to bring the tech support around. It didn't occur to him that they would be reasonable about this situation. Especially Nash, of all people. After holding the hacker aloft for another moment, he abruptly let Nash go to drop back into the chair he had been occupying.

"Fine." Cell grumbled this, crossing his arms over his chest while still glaring down at Nash, who stared up at him. "Well? Go on, go fix your computer."

With raised eyebrows, and a shrug and a mumbled agreement, Nash used his feet to roll away, past the rows of workstations, and towards the back of the building. For several minutes the hacker didn't appear, but there was the sound of equipment moving in the far back of the lab. In the meantime, Cell redirected his gaze to Rory, who was sat still at his respective computer, which was still intact as it was on a separate table. The young man had the familiar wide-eyed look of fear and seemed close to crying.

After having to deal with Nash, Cell couldn't deny that he was glad that _someone_ still took him seriously. He tried to reach out and sense something, anything that might hint to the lab Calliope had gone to. Nothing. Goku and his little friends were easy enough to sense. It wasn't likely those 'zombies', as Nash called them, were even strong enough to register. Eventually, Cell's attention was drawn back to Nash's return.

"Rory! Quarantine unit! Go set that shit up out back." Nash spoke loudly as he pushed his wheeled chair back into the main office. It was loaded with another monitor, a series of cabling, and a few other technical-looking odds and ends. He picked up a small case, tossed it to the other man when he got close enough. Rory seemed more than happy to rush out of the room, and out the back of the building.

Cell let the minutes passed, as it did not take Nash long to set up a new monitor with the still-functioning computer. Apparently, while the monitor had broken upon impact with the ground, the computer tower itself remained intact.

"How long will this take?" It was agitating how indifferent Nash could remain at a time like this. Between his employer being in danger and the threat that Cell himself posed without apology, he would have thought the hacker would have more of a reaction than this.

"Longer if you keep hovering and asking questions."

"... You're awfully cheeky for someone so weak." This didn't stop Cell from keeping a close eye on Nash. He did momentarily wonder how he managed to keep so calm in such a situation. His life was quite obviously threatened, and he maintained no hint of upset. No excessive sweat, no quivering, no elevated heartrate.

"Mmhmm." Other than a simple hum of acknowledgment Nash didn't respond, as he seemed engrossed in his task. He paused for a moment, and his eyebrows peaked upwards. "Okay, here we go, Minnows Solstice Lab. Probably another subsidiary lab of the same company we work for."

"Have you found the location?"

"Almost? I'm still working on it."

"And you do realize that this is a time-sensitive matter."

"Yes, I saw the zombie dude, dude." Nash waved off the concern with one hand that quickly went back to work on the computer's keyboard. "But you need to manage your expectations on how quickly I can do something like this."

"Well _how much longer_ will it take to find this lab's location?" If he wore a watch, Cell imagined he would be looking at it to highlight how thin his patience was wearing.

"I don't know. Could be a few minutes, could be an hour, these things take-" Before Nash could finish his sentence a deep, surrounding hum cut him off as the lab went dark. The hacker stopped dead in what he was doing, the darkness of the lab illuminated only by the violet glow of the HoloCat at his wrist. "... Well... Shit. Nevermind."

" _Nevermind?_ Just what the _hell_ is that suppose to mean?" Cell broke his glare to look about as if he could examine the rest of the small city. The entire town must have lost power. In the lingering darkness, he turned his gaze back at Nash. "Don't you people have back up generators or something?"

"Yeah, usually we do." Nash had moved to relax back in the chair and rifle through his pockets. He had pulled out a bottle of pills, chewed one before replacing the bottle in his pocket. "But they're fucked." Of course Nash was so unreasonable placid. He was _medicated_.

" _What?"_

"The generators. They're fucked. We were supposed to have repair guys coming this week but, y'know, things started kicking off with the evacuation, you were running around eating people." The way Nash said it so calmly, with the barest hint of a reaction, Cell was sure that he had misheard.

As soon as it was acceptable, Cell thought in an attempt to comfort himself, he could blast Nash into oblivion. Or perhaps drop him on the top of a mountain with broken legs so that after the tournament he could come back in a calmer frame of mind and follow through with the promise of killing him slowly.

"I don't care what you have to do you have to do, you damned ingrate, _find a damn way in_. Use your little cat AI!" Cell loomed over closer to Nash as he growled between clenched teeth. This situation was becoming increasingly unacceptable.

"HoloCat doesn't have the tools I need to hack into the Solstice systems." Again Nash had put his hands up. It did appear that he was starting to take the situation a more seriously.

Over several seconds the attention that Cell had been brandishing down at Nash lessened as noise from the front-end of the lab caught his attention. It couldn't have been Calliope, not unless she had been just across town on her current escapades. The sound of a small group increased and Cell turned from Nash to see them enter the lab. Two men carried a third, who had a cloth sack over his head and his hands bound behind his back, between the two of them.

"Put me down, _you fucks!_ " The man bound with a sack over his head screamed this while wriggling and struggling between those holding him. Cell immediately recognized the voice, as well as the now-rumpled suit. "Don't you know who I am?! I will bury you, you _god damn shit goblins!_ "

The two other men didn't seem to notice Cell until he had crossed to stand in front of them, perhaps moving too quick for them to notice. When they did, they immediately froze, and the smaller of the two squeaked with surprise.

"Uh... Nash?" The heavier-set man out of the pair leaned over enough to peer past Cell and call out. It was less a greeting and more a question of what had happened in their absence.

"Oh, hey boss," Nash called back, with the same low-level enthusiasm he had been showing all evening. "Calliope found zombies."

"Wait-what?" The man who Cell finally recognized only by voice as Jay, leaned over to yell at Nash, "Did you just say zombies?!"

"Stop calling them zombies, you idiots." Cell interrupted. "But, at least it looks like I don't need you to get into their systems after all, Nash."

The bound man, Lorenzo, stopped struggling at once. His head looked to turn towards Cell. "Hey- Wait- Hey!" He gave a panicked laugh. "I'm being punked, aren't I! That's you, isn't it big guy? What's that kooky character you play, Cell, right? Okay! Very funny guys! You can let me go now!"

Nash's lax attitude had been enough to deeply frustrate. Lorenzo's grating delusions would not stand. With a growl and smooth movement, Cell snatched the sack of Lorenzo's head. He spoke with a snarl, "Lorenzo."

"Hey man! Are you in on this prank? I gotta say, you guys totally had me. I was sitting here thinking I was actually kidnap- _hurk!_ " Lorenzo grunted out an odd sound as Cell grabbed him by the collar, alleviating the other two men of their burden and lifted the executive so their faces level. Even in this position, bound and vulnerable, the idiot still maintained a crooked smile.

"I'm going to make the bold assumption that you're not _actually_ as stupid as you pretend to be. Where is the Solstice lab?" When Cell asked this, Lorenzo's face fell.

Again laughing, although this time with a nervous quality, Lorenzo shifted his gaze around to try and keep his eyes anywhere but on Cell. "What? Come on, man, we don't have a lab named 'Solstice'. I don't have any idea what you're talking about. How about you put me down?"

By now Lorenzo had stopped actively struggling. Cell waited until the executive stopped talking, and at first, offered no response. Not a second later, with a sudden flare of energy glowing around them, he blasted off through the glass ceiling and hovered well above the lab- with Lorenzo in tow.

Still gripping Lorenzo by the collar, Cell spoke with a renewed, deadly calm over the man's shouting. "Right. I'm going to ask you again, and this time, _don't lie to me._ "

"Shit! Shit! Put me down!" Lorenzo looked to have lost any good humor remaining. While screaming, he wriggled as best as he could, his gaze swinging between Cell and the ground below them.

"Are you sure about that? We're at least a hundred feet up." They weren't. "I'm quite sure the fall would kill you." It wouldn't. Unless he landed on his neck, at worst Lorenzo would break a few bones. But Cell took a few moments of delight in seeing his eyes grow large with fear nonetheless. The audible sound of his heart pounding in fear sounded like progress.

"Well put me down without killing me!"

"Are you going to tell him what I want to know?"

"Fucking hell! Fine! I don't know why you would want to go there, the place is under _goddamned quarantine_! Goddamn Violet going off script, fucking everything up!" Before Lorenzo could continue lamenting whatever troubles he was having keeping his employees in line, Cell loosened his grip on the collar to allow it to slip just an inch. That silent threat was enough to get his attention back where it needed to be, after a short cry. "Fine! Okay! It's over in the sticks, south of Spice Town in the woods. If you're flying around like a fairy you can't miss it."

Lorenzo went silent for just a moment before daring to crack a smile. "So, ah, can you put me down now?"

While he didn't answer immediately, Cell did draw Lorenzo closer with tightly held fists. He returned the smile, with a sinister snarl.

"After everything's said and done, you're first on my list."

Any questions that Lorenzo was about to ask were cut off as Cell released his hold, and let the man fall, screaming back down to the lab. He could be dealt with later.


	20. Untitled Chapter of Things

Chapter 19: Untitled Chapter of Things

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AN: Guess who got caught up with anxiety-induced writer's block? This gal did!

* * *

~Minnows Solstice~

She could have been a chef.

She could have entertained a wild dream and become an artist in Paris. Of course, she didn't have much skill or passion for art, but perhaps if she dabbled in the abstract she could do well. Abstract was essentially slapping paint on a canvas, right? How much skill could that possibly take?

She could have been an apiarist, Calliope always had a soft spot for honey bees.

Any number of other paths could have helped her avoided being here, now, trapped and forced to defend herself. _This was not supposed to happen_. She should have been happily, safely sequestered in her own labs trying to improve the world through genetically engineered animals and crops.

Once again, Calliope tried to push any useless trains of thought from her mind. She needed to focus on getting out.

She intentionally avoided the hot labs that would require her to go through decontamination and donning a biohazard suit. It would take too much time, even if she would have been able to gain access. Skirting through the labs where no infectious agents were held and dashing down halls had worked so far to avoid Violet and her staff.

It was a fight to keep herself from being overcome with panic. Ever so often there would be a shuffling sound of someone walking nearby, which she avoided by ducking and remaining silent under a desk or in a closet. She caught glimpses of them- walking slowly in jerky motions, looking around but not investigating deeply enough to find her.

There was a near-constant chatter as they called out to her. They spoke in soft tones in trying to lure her out, with assurances that she would not be harmed. They only wanted her to join in their bliss. That she would be grateful once she fully understood.

Her thoughts sprinted between the wildly useless to intently focused on how to escape, with an annoying mix of curiosity for what exactly happened here. The workroom where she had argued with Cell had a fair amount of information in the form of research notes. She hadn't gotten a chance to read them as thoroughly as she would have otherwise liked before Quin showed up.

Calliope tried not to think about Quin, except that the badge she took off his body gave her greater access to the building. She tried not to think how she had acted out in a violent, rage-filled manner to silence Quin before he could tell Cell their location. He was sure to come after her next. It was an act of preemptive self-defense, she told herself.

It wasn't until she had sneaked into a secure wing, and locked the door behind her that she allowed herself to actively wonder what Cell had been doing in Nicky Town. If there hadn't been a building full of crazy people trying to catch her, she supposed, she would have been more worried about her nerds back home.

All things considered, Nash was sure to get himself killed- he was too cheeky for his own good, and doubted that it would be tolerated. As much as Calliope hated to think as much, it was still better than Cell being lured to this place to be infected. That was the absolute last thing she needed.

Shaking herself from the thought to avoid the inevitable guilt, Calliope began investigating the darkened hall. She was careful to stick close to the wall, pistol held in a death grip. The sounds of Violet's staff was muffled in here, not that it did anything to calm her. As her eyes adjusted to the lower light level it was apparent that it was a short hallway, two offices on either side, with a door to the stairwell at the end. Her heart jumped with excitement to see a possible escape route.

Going from a cautious walk to a careful jog, Calliope stopped short at the faint bluish glow in one of the offices. Her hands snapped up to raise the pistol in front of her, at the open door. She could just make out a desk with a scattering of paperwork, and the glow of a laptop screen. It was still quiet here, it should be safe from the others.

There had been no sirens blaring for an impending on-site nuclear detonation, nor any other indication that a facility-wide containment measure was triggered. It wasn't likely Nash had been able to set that in motion.

If it had, it was entirely likely all entrances would be sealed and she would be doomed with everyone else in the lab. Considering that it was entirely possible that she was infected as well, Calliope accepted this. It wasn't an ideal situation, but she could accept her fate. But not if she could help it.

Calliope looked to the door to the stairway for a moment but then ducked into the office. She sat herself down at the desk, laid her gun down next to the laptop, and lifted the lid open more. There was a chance she could contain this, get out, put herself into quarantine, and maybe, hopefully, not turn into a raging maniac.

It appeared to still be logged into the system, unlike the other computer where she had been able to get a video call out to Nash. She knew she didn't have much time to examine what appeared to be research notes that were still open, as tempting as it was. For the moment, she tried to find who's profile she was logged in under and what kind of access they had to the system. Anyone lower than Violet wouldn't be worthwhile.

Of the dozens of files open on the computer Calliope's eyes caught on a file she had intended to minimize titled ' _Queen Maker_ '. Against her better judgment, she hesitated to minimize the window and read on.

' _I have made a dreadful miscalculation. It is one thing to have a new researcher bumbling a step in decontamination protocol, but I fear that this time it was my own poor judgment which has put us in the maw of the lion._

 _I can feel myself slipping away bit by bit as She whispers in my ear. The process is maddening Julie was right we should not have pursued such as this_

 _If I was a braver woman I would eat my shame as a bullet as a bullet to the brain_

 _A crown of madness sits upon my head and grows ever heavier into the spine_

 _into the spine_

 _into the spine_

 _into the_

 _spine_

 _they are erased they are becoming pawns to Her will'_

"Oh, _what the fuck_ , Violet?" She muttered under her breath. She reread some of the sentences again in confusion. By the date, it was saved recently, within the last week. When she was able to pull up the account information it confirmed that this was Violet's computer.

This was taking too much time, Calliope knew. She needed to try and leave.

At the faint creak of the door pushing open Calliope's head snapped up, and her heart sank to see Violet. The older woman smiled sweetly, an out of character look for her. She was dragging something, a shape she recognized as a body, the head dripping and crushed in. Violet's hand was wrapped around his neck. It looked like the black-red blood from Quin's wound was defying gravity to slither up her arm like vines.

She blinked, thinking between the adrenaline and sleep deprivation that she must have been seeing things.

"Calliope. Darling." When Violet said this softly Calliope leaped up from the desk, ready to run and leave the gun and computer if need be. "I think we've _all had enough of these histrionics_." Violet's eyes, discolored and dark, gleamed as black ichor poured like tears down her face. She took smooth, slow steps into the room. "Look at poor Quin's head, crushed in like a melon. Do you have any idea how long that's going to take to clean up?"

"I'm sorry about Quin," Calliope tried to keep her voice calm. Now was not the time to be antagonistic. Calliope forced herself not to look at her gun still on the desk, or Quin's body, to keep her eyes locked with Violet's. "But he didn't give me a choice."

"And look at the state of my dear subjects. Scattered around this lab looking for _you_ , young lady." As Violet spoke Calliope found that her voice had lost the halting quality that it had before. It was closer to her usual voice, with an overtone of a deeper, sinister sound.

"Aunt Violet, whatever happened here, its okay," Calliope said this, trying to ignore the bells of danger that rang in the back of her mind. She was beginning to sound more desperate, trying to talk Violet down from the edge. "We can get you help."

Violet stopped when she heard this, and the saccharine smile fell from her face. For a moment Calliope hoped that she had gotten through. Then, her aunt's lips curled back wide with a sudden fit of laughter. The cackling shook Violet's body and lasted long enough that anyone else would have been winded.

Seeing an opportunity and sensing the ever growing danger, Calliope grabbed the pistol off the desk. Her hands held steady as she raised the gun level with Violet, but found her finger hesitated at the trigger. This was her Aunt Violet. The one true role model she had always looked up to. While she couldn't say that she _loved_ the woman, she did respect her enough to give her one last chance.

Violet's fit of laughter ceased suddenly as she regarded Calliope, the gun, and then Calliope again. Her lips curled up into a twisted grin. "Oh, you are just so precious, Little Calliope." At this point she started walking forward again, her gait much smoother now than been earlier that evening. "Now, put that gun down before you hurt yourself."

"No," Calliope said the single word without hesitation. Her finger curled around the trigger more firmly, and Calliope raised the gun up enough to point directly at Violet's head. "You're going to let me go. I'm going to leave this facility, and we will call in someone to deal with what's happened."

While she spoke, Calliope eyed Violet and used a free hand to close and grab the laptop she had been engrossed in. As her aunt moved slowly towards the desk, she moved around the other side so as to keep the desk between them.

With a sudden snarl, Violet leaped forward and with hands curled like claws threw the desk like it was nothing. Calliope has scarcely an instant to think that should have been too great a physical feat for a middle-aged woman, and chose to run. She had made it only a few steps when her hair was grabbed and roughly pulled back. By the time Calliope recovered enough to realize that she was on the floor, Violet had pounced and wrapped both hands around her neck.

" _Impudent child_!" Violet was screeching with widened eyes and the veins around her face going dark. Each word was punctuated with a greater squeeze and "You _will_ submit or you will end you myself!"

Gripped by a sudden panic and Violet's hands, Calliope did her best to struggle. Kicking her legs and lashing out at her aunt's face, it was impossible to move the woman from on top of her.

"Violet!- Please!" With her throat crushed as it was, she could barely squeak out a plea, which she knew would be futile. This wasn't Violet anymore.

"Who are you to deny such an honor as an invitation to my court?!"

"God- Damnit- Violet!" She barely managed to choke out the words. Calliope couldn't manage any other response to insane rambles.

Above her the madwoman kept her pinned and clawed at the mask and goggles at her eyes, tearing them away. "You think you know what's better for yourself than I?!"

Calliope winced at the sickly sweet smell in the air reached her, and then again as thick drops of ichor dripped onto her exposed face.

One of her hands pressed against Violet's face while the other slapped around the ground to try and find the pistol. Her fingers skirted over fallen office supplies that had been on the desk, and without looking Calliope gripped the first thing she had a good handle on. Swinging with as much force she could muster, the pen she had found stabbed into Violet's eye, and was met with a deafening screech. The sound and sight of the injured woman were enough to make Calliope's stomach do a nauseating flip.

The instant after her attack landed, Violet's hold weakened enough for Calliope to shove her off. She gulped down deep breaths, with disregard for potential airborne contagions, and scrambled to get herself upright. Violet was trying to pull herself up with the wall as support as Calliope darted out of the room, one arm clutching the laptop close to her. There wasn't time to retrieve her gun.

Violet's enraged screams carried after her as she ran down the hall, where she collided with the door indicating a stairwell beyond it, guarded by a key-card reader. Calliope didn't dare look behind her at the sound of a door slamming open, or the sounds of footfalls approaching. All her focus had to be on getting her trembling hands, Quin's key-card, scanning it, pressing through the door, only to momentarily freeze at the flicker of a shadow behind her.

Calliope didn't hesitate in whirling around, swinging the heft of the laptop in both hands to connect with the neck of a woman with wild eyes and familiar black-stained eyes. When the woman was knocked over, slid down the wall, twitching on the ground. Before they had the chance to recover Calliope brought the heel of her shoe down in a sharp kick to the woman's temple.

For an instant she seized up at the sight down the hall- Violet stepping out from the office, wounded eye leaking heavily of red-tinged black, a few of her staff standing at her back. They cut a striking gang, their eyes glaring with menace. Something was different with Violet, however, the hand and arm that held tightly to Quin's limb body coated with shiny blackness, looking to melt together. Her arm pulsated as the darkness dripped upwards, looking to sink into her flesh and add to her mass.

It was tempting, against all reasoning, to stand her ground and berate her aunt for what Calliope could only assume was a gross misuse of knowledge and research funds. The state of her lab and researchers was absolutely shameful.

Her better senses kicked in immediately.

This was no time to be stupid. There was no point trying to argue now, Violet was too far gone.

Instead, Calliope broke eye contact with what used to be Violet and spun around to the doorway to the stairs again. Swiping Quin's key-card again she slammed against the door as a roar rang out behind her. She spared just a moment to slam her body against the door, closing it behind her. The automatic lock click into place and Calliope took that as a cue to resume fleeing. Running up the stairs, taking them two steps at a time, she didn't dare look behind her when the banging started. The metallic sound thundered, loud and jarring echoed back on her in the enclosed stairwell.

It was only after rushing up four flights of stairs that she panicked over the lack of doors in the stairwell. By now she would have only been at the first level by now. With no other choice, Calliope kept the pace up the stairs, up another story to finally find another door, which must have lead to the roof access. Again it was protected by similar security measures downstairs, which Quin's card was able to open.

Below the sound of Violet's banging on the door had only intensified.

Pressing through the door, Calliope again slammed it shut behind her, and only after hearing it click as the light settled into place did she allow herself an ounce of relief.

The clean cool air was a welcome change to the stuffiness of the lab below. Finally free, finally out of immediate danger. It was deceptively peaceful outside. But there wasn't time to let her head clear or her heartbeat slow down.

With her back to the door, Calliope was giving herself to the count of ten to breathe. She wiped at the sweat and blood on her face, again realizing how sticky and grimy she felt. Being able to take a shower and rest felt like a far-flung dream she had no idea when she'd be able to fulfill.

She couldn't very well walk away from the mess her aunt had created. Looking back at the laptop still clutched in her arm, she decided that whatever access it still had would have to be enough. Opening the laptop back up, balanced in one hand, she surveyed the damage that it had taken while being used as an impromptu weapon.

The screen on the laptop had a splash of blood that she had failed to notice earlier, and the screen had cracked along the top corner. But it still turned on, and still had access to Violet's account. The document full of insane ramblings was still opened. Calliope minimized it with the decision that she could always review it later.

Violet would have a contingency plan for an outbreak of this nature. She had to.

She tried to ignore the muffled sounds coming from the stairwell behind her. She tried not to think how likely it was that she had been infected with what had driven Violet to madness.

One thing at a time. It was more manageable if she focused on one catastrophe at a time. Keep calm, carry on she told herself. Now was not the time to have a nervous breakdown.

" _Calliope_!" She shook with a start as her name was shouted from above, intoned with anger. She looked up in time to see Cell, streaked on all sides with golden light, land lightly on the other end of the small rooftop and immediately striding her way. Despite his narrowed eyes and agitated visage glaring at her, she couldn't help but feel relieved. He continued with a voice that was steeped with annoyance, "I would _love_ to know what about this you consider a ' _family emergency_ '."

Calliope felt that she could kiss him again for showing up at such an opportune time. But she could just as easily slap him for the same reason.

""Cell?" Her throat ached where Violet had throttled her, and her voice sounded rough and choked. A moment later her senses caught up with her, the potential consequences of his being here, right now, of all times. Her mind could only imagine what would happen if he was to end up infected with the same madness as her aunt. She pushed away from the door and returned Cell's glare and tone in kind. "What the Hell are you doing here?!"

Cell had stopped short, half-surprised by her question. He frowned and immediately replied, "Oh, no. No. I'm not having this conversation with you right now." He shook his head and then, not able to help himself, continued with greater agitation, "Although I'd like to think that it's obvious that I'm here saving you!"

"I don't need _saving_!" Calliope raged back, her voice cracking from the strain. Perhaps it was the stress of the evening, but Cell's assumption struck on her last viable nerve. Whether or not his concern was valid wasn't important. She focused back on the laptop, and slowly worked through the process to initiate the containment protocols that would destroy the lab. How the Hell was she suppose to know which password to enter? At this point, she was simply guessing.

When she spoke to Cell again she knew she sounded distracted. "I have everything handled! I just... I need you to stay back, and I need a couple more minutes to... Do a thing..."

"Calliope. Look at me." Cell said this evenly, and after a moment she did tear her eyes away from another attempt at entering passcodes to try and initiate the incendiary containment to glare at him again. " _This_?" He was still frowning, and gestured at her, "This does not look like you have _'everything handled'_."

All things considered, Calliope could see Cell's point. Not that she would ever concede such a thing.

"Well. I do. So. You can go before you have the chance to be infected." She waved him off and looked back to the laptop. If she could figure out what Violet would use as a passcode in emergency circumstances. "I can't believe you would just show up here. You have no idea how dangerous this place is right now. I can't even be sure any other infectious agent got released as a result of _everyone_ here losing their damned mind- _Hey_!"

Any further comments were cut off as she was roughly pulled forward off her feet. Before having time to resist, while somehow managing to keep a hold of the laptop, Calliope was briefly stunned to find herself slung over Cell's shoulder. She summoned up as much authority as she could, with her legs kicking in protest. "Put me down, right now!"

"No!" Cell snapped as he turned about to walk a short distance from the raised entrance of the stairwell. He had a hand wrapped around her waist, firmly holding her in place. The air around him felt hot and charged with energy, like the day they met. "This is not up for discussion, Calliope. We're going back to your lab, you're going to get cleaned up, and we're going to have a serious talk about what you consider to be appropriate activities."

"What? No! I can't leave! I have to try and contain this!" She shouted this and was tempted to smack at Cell with the laptop. Only the thought of potentially damaging it further stopped her. "And _I_ need to go into quarantine! I've-" Calliope once again fell silent when the door to the stairwell shook with a bang.

Cell stopped short, half-turning to look at the door as it shook again, as if a great force was bashing it from the other side. The next moment another resounding bang sent the door crashing, tumbling end over end off its hinges. In the blink of an eye, Cell had taken to the air, dodging out of the way of the door.

"Well, this is... interesting?" Cell said with an amount of uncertainty. Calliope had still been trying to twist around, pushing off his wing to see what he was looking at. She had ended up snapping the laptop shut to keep a better grip on it, but was still working with one hand, and her neck going numb from the burden of the bag she carried. "What kind of work did they do in this lab?"

"They worked with infectious diseases. Hence why I'm so upset about you _showing up with no protective measures_!" Calliope huffed the answer and managed to pull herself enough to stare down at the lab's rooftop, where a monstrous figure was pulling itself out of the stairwell. She shouted out of surprise and anger, "Oh, _god damn it_ , Violet!"

Whatever transformation that her fake-aunt had started downstairs had advanced at a disconcertingly fast rate. Her skin had taken on a darkened, veiny appearance. As a whole her body had nearly doubled in size, staying long and lanky as Violet had always been. Her face had changed to a disturbing visage, and all dripping with black ichor. She turned her head upwards, and even from such distance Calliope could tell that Violet was glaring at her with her undamaged eye.

" _You get down here this instant young lady!_ " What used to be Violet roared upwards with a voice that was hardly human.

"I see you made friends while you were here." Cell commented with a wry sense of humor.

"Oh haha. That's Violet. She's... Well, _was_ , kind of my adopted, not related by blood, aunt."

"Your adopted-but-not-really aunt is..." For a second Cell stumbled on a definition, and Calliope saw him gesture with his free hand down to Violet, who continued screeching up at them. "Whatever _that's_ suppose to be?"

"Well, _obviously_ she hasn't always been like that! The whole dripping, screaming monster thing is a recent development." Calliope shuttered at the memory of having been in the lab, chased by mad people and throttled by Violet. "I want to say its the result of some kind of infection, but, who knows, maybe people are just turning into monsters nowadays! I don't know anymore!"

In the back of her mind, though she would never directly acknowledge such a thing, it was a comfort to have Cell here. He may have been many things- psychotic, arrogant, overbearing and omnicidal with a goal of the complete destruction of everything... But he had never caused her harm, not like Violet, and had even come to her aid.

"Right, new plan." When Cell spoke, breaking her out of the thoughts she had been trying desperately to ignore. "I'm going to take care of your _aunt_ first, and then we can go."

"Wait, do you mean ' _take care of_ ' as in killing her?"

Cell looked back at her, where she had her front half propped up enough for them to exchange a look. He didn't hesitate with his answer. " _Obviously_ , yes."

"Oh. Okay." Calliope answered quickly, which got her a side-eyed, suspicious look from Cell.

"... And you're perfectly fine with this?"

"Yeah, go for it." Calliope offered the best shrug she could with the position she was held. "Violet's a lost cause anyway. I have no idea what's wrong with her, and at this point, I'm more concerned with her spreading... Whatever it is she's potentially infected with."

It was similar enough to putting down an animal infected with rabies. By the time symptoms and started to show there was nothing to be done for the creature. Calliope wasn't sure if there was reversible, but with the strength and rabid nature Violet had displayed, it was safer to put her down. She couldn't believe that train of thought had to run through her head. It was the only way she could feel justified in approving such a thing.

"Well, I'm glad you're being sensible about this." Sounding pleased, if still surprised by her consent, Cell turned his attention back to Violet on the ground, who was still shrieking up at them. By this point, she was unintelligible, with only a recognizable word here and there.

Turned as he was, Calliope had a better view as Cell extended a hand facing towards Violet. A ball of white light grew in his palm, hovered for a moment before shooting down at Violet. An instant before it impacted, when Calliope winced at an anticipated blast, Violet lashed out with an elongated hand, slapping the attack away from herself. The ball of energy hurled back up at them, which Cell dodged with minimal effort.

While it had lasted less than a few seconds, Calliope still called out in surprise. Cell hummed to himself but otherwise didn't seem troubled. "Hm."

"' _Hm_ '? ' _Hm_ ' what?!" Calliope looked from Violet as several of her staff spilled onto the rooftop, also gazing up at the two of them, and back to Cell who had a surprisingly thoughtful look on his face. "You _can_ kill her, right?"

"I have no doubt that I'm able to, and I'm insulted that you feel the need the ask." Cell said this with a concerning amount of confidence, followed by a chuckle. "But, it looks like I get to have a bit of fun putting her down."

Calliope would have questioned him further, but instead, a string of harsh curse words came out as they suddenly propelled backward. More hair fell into her face and the laptop slipped from her grip. When they stopped suddenly they were hovering near the rear of the property, where the stone wall separated the lawn from the darkened woods.

Before she could react she was lifted off Cell's shoulder with little effort, both hands wrapped around her waist.

"Stay here while I deal with this." He said as he lightly placed her to stand at the top of the wall, and waited until she was balanced on her weary legs before letting go. As an afterthought, with a frown and finger pointed disapprovingly at her, Cell added, "and _try not to run off and get yourself into more danger._ "

Calliope frowned at that last part, brushing hair out of her face as she watched him turn about in midair to focus on Violet and her staff again. With a thought, she suddenly called out before Cell could get too far away.

"Hey, wait! _Be careful!_ " There was an awkward moment, where Cell's face blanked with a dumbfounded look, for just a moment, and Calliope realized that perhaps she needed to elaborate. She didn't need him to give him a reason to think she cared about his safety in the strictest sense. "It's just, I'm pretty sure she wants to try and infect you too! So, you know, try not to make physical contact with her!"

"Well, Calliope, dear, I appreciate your concern, but I would be surprised if any virus cooked up in a lab could infect me!" Cell responded loudly, while behind him Violet bellowed another roar of pure rage in that strange dual-toned voice.

Both of them turned to look towards the lab, against the white stone of the building Violet's lithe black form was visible as she began crawling down the side of the building. She looked to have doubled in size again. All around her that black sludge dripped and stained over the outside of the Solstice lab. Calliope had to squint to see the top of the building, where Violet's cohorts had been before and found all of them missing.

"Okay but there's no way you can know whether or not you're susceptible! This is more about limiting exposure to infectious- you're not listening. Okay." Calliope started shouting but found herself trailing off with a half-hearted yell to herself as Cell sped away, back towards the lab.

The building was dozens of yards away; close enough to see the action, but not close enough to tell all the details. A heartbeat after muttering to herself, she saw Cell slam into Violet's form, with enough force that they both crashed through the wall. Calliope held her breath while waiting to see the next evidence of development.

The silence was crushing, she was too far away to hear any struggle that was surely going on in the lab until an explosion blasted out one side of the building. Another scream, Violet's by the sound of it, rang out. The piercing shriek like a banshee froze Calliope to the core, and out in the open of the yard felt more vulnerable than she had all night.

"Idiot couldn't just kill her with magical fiery laser beams, no." She muttered to herself with a touch of bitter sarcasm. Still, she internally rooted for Cell in this battle, hard as it was to do.

Breaking through the roofing Cell emerged to hover above the building, and at the distance, she couldn't tell whether he had been scratched up or simply covered in dust. A moment later Violet appeared as well, not so much flying as propelled by a great leap. A well-timed beam of energy blasted from Cell through her midsection, drawing another loud banshee screech as she fell.

The lab's uppermost levels had already been steadily crumbling at the fight, but with Violet's fall, the building quickly lost what remained of its structural integrity. The remaining walls, slowly at first, began to collapse in on themselves, kicking up dust that spread out over the grounds.

Was it over, she wondered. Calliope would have relaxed if she didn't keep eyeing Cell, who still hovered with a tight stance and clenched fists over the rubble. The remains of the building were still shuttering upon themselves when chunks of the rubble flung up, like great rocks flung up straight into the air.

With the dust kicked up, it was difficult to see what happened next. Calliope could scarcely make out a large figure bounding up from the rubble like a crocodile leaping out of the water. There were more screams- one likely Violet's mixed with the deeper, more enraged voice that had to have been Cell's. Another series of explosions rang out, these bright enough that she had to shield her eyes from the light, and was smacked by a wave of warmed air and dust.

"Oh, what the Hell." Calliope said to herself, quietly, suddenly worried and irritated. Irritated that her specific instructions went ignored, and worried that now she may very well be alone with her now-dangerous, rabid aunt. What if Cell had overestimated his strength?

She hesitated at her place on top of the wall and looked back to the black forest that spread around the compound. Now would be an opportune time to run, if she was again in danger. Violet was sure to be distracted. There was a chance she could slip away, find a safe spot to pop out a quarantine unit, and possibly get back into contact with... Someone. Anyone that might be able to help.

Again cursing quietly, Calliope turned and carefully lowered herself from the wall onto the soft grassy lawn. The dust had extended out to fog the entire area, clouding her vision and irritating her eyes. Through the dusty quiet, where the only sound was her footsteps gentle stepping on the overgrown lawn.

By some stroke of luck she stumbled across the laptop she had dropped only minutes earlier- and upon cracking it open, her attention split between what little she could see and hear around her, and the computer's screen as it lit up.

"Well, at least one thing is working out in my favor tonight..." She spoke almost at a whisper to no one. Closing up the laptop again, she cautiously stepped forward in the foggy, gritty air. As an afterthought, she pulled another mask from her bag, the last one she had on hand within easy reach. With one hand already occupied, she settled for holding the mask over her nose and mouth. At this point, it wasn't so much as to keep herself from being exposed to possible contagions as from breathing in smoke and fine particles.

There was a distant sound like stone grinding on stone, and then again silence outside of the occasional pebble bouncing off of rubble. She must have made it halfway across the lawn before she stopped, gripping the laptop closing to her side, unsure what the situation current was.

"Cell?" Calliope called out tentatively into the murky surroundings. She waiting a moment for a response, at least a snarky response, or failing that, some bestial sound that would signal that Violet was still alive. She was hesitant to move any further, and fought the urge to turn and run. When no answer came she softly muttered to herself, half-joking, "You didn't get yourself killed, did you?"

She was too sober to find any humor in it.

Something rustled the grass somewhere to her left, and When Calliope turned towards the source couldn't tell who or what it was. The tallish, dark figure was obscured by the dust in the air. She had only just realized the outlined form was the wrong shape and height to be Cell when she heard something behind her. Before she had time to react a number of things happened practically all at once.

She had to squint through the dust-borne fog but caught sight of the dark forms that shimmered black. There was a noise like a scream, lower and louder and almost the same as the sound Violet had been making near the end. It was only a glimpse, but their jaws looked to hang open wider than the human form should allow. Most of their exposed skin was stained with dark viscous liquid.

They lunged at her before she had a chance to scream. A large mass slammed into her with a scream and a hot wave of air, constricting with a strong arm around her waist. A bright flash of light lit up from one side and it took a moment for her eyes to make sense of the situation again. Cell was there, holding her against his chest in a too-tight grip, one arm outstretched blasting an attack of pure energy where two of Violet's staff had been. Another of them- in such a state that Calliope couldn't recognize if they were researcher or from a support staff- uncomfortably close to her face as they had their overstretched jaws clamped into the exposed portion of his shoulder.

Suddenly Cell brought his free hand to the last attacker, and in a crushing grip wrapped around their neck. Then, with a smooth motion that was too quick for Calliope to follow, had whipped them around like a ragdoll to slam into the ground. They didn't have a chance to move before they, too, were blasted with an attack too bright to look at directly. In the clearing smog she could see the top half of their body was nothing but smoldering remains, and the lower half of their body twitched irregularly.

"There, that should be the last of them." Cell speaking drew Calliope's attention back to him, pinned by his worried gaze and grip that still hadn't loosened. "Are you alright?"

"Well, I..." Calliope blanked on a response at first, still recovering from the ambush and then rescue. It was difficult to think over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. The gears in her mind had ground to a halt and were trying to catch up. Details she had missed before started to registered- that she had dropped her mask and laptop at some point, that her hands on Cell's chest felt slick with something, she was uncomfortably warm, and that she had gone several moments without actually responding. She realized how close they were, again, and reluctantly recalled how he had held her not a day earlier.

She was fine, Calliope assured herself, just shaken, though she couldn't quite get the words to form.

" _What the hell, Cell_?!" The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them, as some part of her mind recognized that her very specific instructions had gone ignored. Cell briefly balked at her response, and when she started squirming, pushing away from him as best as she could, finally set her back on the ground. "Did you not listen when I told you not to _physically touch any of them?!_ "

The air had cleared around them, and as she brought herself back so she could keep Cell at least arm's length away she could take in his appearance better. He was still the same imposing figure, though now his speckled armor gleamed with more black than it had before.

It took her eyes another moment to draw on the other details that were evidence of his battle with Violet and her staff. He was coated in a suspicious amount of black similar to what her aunt had been leaking. There were various scratches, a few deep enough to warrant concern, and his should bore a deep gnarly gash where the one had bit down. "And you're hurt! What the hell happened?!"

Calliope had a brief thought that perhaps it was in poor taste to yell so harshly at someone who had just saved her from further harm. But her aching head was more concerned with the possibility that Cell had most certainly been exposed to this unnamed infection.

"Hm? Oh, yes." Cell looked down at himself as if it was an afterthought. He touched at a spot of blackish liquid on his chest, rubbing the substance between his fingers with a look of disgust. His usually pristine white and purple-streaked face was splashed an amount of the same ichor. Despite Calliope's reaction, he didn't seem to be terribly concerned and didn't even glance at his shoulder that still seeped purplish blood down his arm. "You're not-quite-aunt splashed quite a bit before I put her down."

Calliope felt her eye twitching on its own accord again. She found she couldn't take any comfort in the fact that Violet wasn't a threat anymore. With a deep breath, she tried to calm herself, tried to remind herself to not lose what remained of her composure.

"You're covered in what I'm assuming is very contaminated goo!" When she shouted this, instead of the measured tone she had wanted to use. Calliope decided that perhaps this was an acceptable situation in which to abandon her cool. "Did you not listen when I told you not to touch her?! Or any of them?! _What happened to being careful?!_ "

"Well, they're taken care of, so, _you're welcome._ "Cell frowned a bit and offered a shrug. When he did his lip twitched with a snarl, the only hint that the injury to his shoulder was causing any pain. Clearly, he failed to grasp the dangers that had escaped from the Solstice lab. Instead, he smiled in the same over-confident way, as if it could resolve the tension of the current situation "I don't see what you're getting so upset about. They're dead, you're safe."

"Oh, for the love of... " Calliope walked away several spaces, as it was difficult to look at Cell covered in what she could only assume was incredibly infectious goo, bleeding from deep bite wounds. She continued to shout over her shoulder, "You really don't understand! _Both of us have been exposed,_ you jackass!"

Now frowning and crossing his arms over his chest, Cell took the pause in her angry outpour to try and interrupt, "Calliope, calm down-"

" _Don't tell me to calm down!_ " She shouted back over him, pointing a finger accusingly up at Cell. When he blew a sigh out of his nose and rolled his eyes, Calliope couldn't help but be tempted to slap that stupid look off his face. Again she had to turn about on her heel and pace away through the clearing dust-fog.

She huffed, stripped the grimy latex gloves off her hands, and threw them to the ground. Replacing them with a new set of gloves out of habit that the evening had built, Calliope spoke softly, though aggressively to herself. "Where the hell is a hose, I'm going to spray you off!-"

She was trying to recall anything and everything she might have picked up from Violet on containing possibly infected individuals. Her aunt's advice had always more concerned known pathogens and their containment in a research setting. With this in mind, Calliope dropped to a knee as she began digging through her bag. "No. Wait. That won't do. We _both_ need to go through full _goddamn decontamination_ because someone can't follow simple instructions!"

~Minnows Farm~

Android 16 enjoyed the time he spent at the farm. It was quiet, peaceful, and the goats were happy to have him there.

Upon arriving back at the farm he had spent several hours tending to the goats. They were independent creatures, more or less able to take care of themselves in the absence of their usual caretakers, but they still clearly liked the attention. While there was a river and plenty of grass for them to eat, they still preferred to be pampered with fresh tap water and new salt licks placed on fence posts.

It was while tending the goats that 16 noticed a handful of the younger goats, full of energy and prone to getting up to mischief, had made their way into the farmhouse. He ushered them outside as the interior had been completely destroyed by 17's previous rampage through the home, and didn't want to risk the goats hurting themselves. There was broken glass and chemicals everywhere, with spots on the floor, wall and even the ceiling where fluids were flung and splashed about.

He tried not to think about Android 17.

Cleaning was a good distraction, and 16 indulged. First, he swept up the glass and other trash. Then placed the few pieces of unbroken furniture and appliances back where it looked like they belonged. Some of them, 16 noticed, had been chewed on at some point, presumably by one of the goats. He attempted to clean the chemicals and other fluids after an analysis showed none of them would be directly harmful to the goats in such small amounts.

While he cleaned a small collection of younger goats watched him through windows, occasionally bleating in an attempt to get his attention.

"I am still cleaning up the farmhouse. You cannot come back in here." 16 paused while sweeping a spot on the floor, at a particularly insistent bleat. He looked at the one loud goat who stood near the window, watching him with a tilted head. The goat gave another long, loud bleat in response. "No. You cannot come back in. You should not be chewing on furniture."

Another loud bleat cut off the end of 16's sentence, followed by the goat gently butting its small horns at the window.

"Please do not break the glass, goat. _I am trying to sweep._ " This seemed the settle the goat, and 16 resumed sweeping. Not long after, when his back was turned to the window, the sound of shattering made him turn back around.

The young goat, small enough to be mistaken for a standard-breed kid, managed to bound in the freshly broken window. When it made a particularly energetic leap from the counter, 16 snatched it out of the air as gentle as he could manage.

"... You remind me of a friend I use to have, but who was absorbed by Cell. I am going to call you 17." The goat looked up to 16 and wiggled its ears in approval. He set the broom off to one side and easily picked up the goat from the countertop. "17 the Goat."

At this point, carrying 17 the Goat under his arm, he decided to take a break from cleaning. He went the field nearby, under the same tree on his first visit, gently set the goat down, and took a seat on the grass.

Again the goats congregated around. Some nibbled at his hair or ear or armor, while a handful of juveniles took turns jumping on and off his broad shoulders. Hours later, when the sun had long set and the area was lit only by the stars, the goats had all settled. In the mild summer air, the animals were comfortable enough to curl up outside in the same grass they roamed, ate, and played in throughout the day.

The only disturbance came near the middle of the night when a call came in through 16's internal radio system. He recognized HoloCat's unique request and immediately picked up the call, without broadcasting aloud so as not to disturb the goats.

When the call came in from HoloCat, he answered it immediately. As good company as the goats were, they had not been able to provide the best conversation.

" _Hello, HoloCat, it is good to hear from you again._ " 16 greeted and waited for a response. A moment passed. Then another, where the only sound on the line was a dull static.

"- _ **Help**_ -" The one distinguishable word cut through the static. It was HoloCat, without a doubt, but transmitted as if in a whisper. The call cut abruptly in static and an unmistakable high-pitched scream. An error message was reported immediately.

' _:( Call disconnection notice.  
Please contact HoloCat development team by submitting a trouble ticket through Minnows BioSolutions Help Desk.  
HoloCat Artificial Intelligence System Version 1.7.83  
Error BRIKD1000x9737  
User:  
Unit: Pancake'_

When 16 tried to reach back out to HoloCat, the one he was familiar with, the one who was, for lack of a better word, friends with Calliope, he was met with a similar error. The call couldn't go through and gave no option to leave a message, which was enough to cause concern.

He reached out instead to one of the other HoloCats used by Minnows BioSolutions, that Calliope's unit had referred him to one the chance that it could not be reached at any point in time.

" _Thank you for calling Minnows BioSolutions of Nicky Town_!" Another of the HoloCats answered the line, sounding chipper as it's default settings dictated. 16 allowed it to finish its lengthy current-standard greeting, which it did without hesitation. " _Unfortunately our offices and laboratories are currently closed due to evacuation orders, and also because the world might be ending by way of 'a very scary monster man who kinda looks like a cicada and eats people and is also very scary', as our development team tells us! What can I do for you today?_ "

" _Hello HoloCat. This is Android 16._ "

" _Oh! Hi, Mister Android 16! I'm HoloCat unit assigned to a collective at Minnows BioSolutions in Nicky Town, you can call me Bonbon!_ "

" _Hello, Bonbon._ " That was odd. When did the HoloCat units start going by individual names?

" _HoloCat units assigned to some of the Minnows BioSolutions staff told us you were a really nice guy! How are you doing?_ "

" _I am fine._ " 16 looked back down to the goats sleeping on and around him and smiled. One of them, on chance, sleepily looked up at him before laying its head back down on his lap. " _I have been at the Minnows Farm where the Mega goats are kept. It has been nice. Is everything alright at the lab in Nicky Town?_ "

There was a pause before Bonbon the HoloCat responded. It sounded nervous now. " _Umm... Well... We have had a couple of... Incidents this evening..._ "

" _What kind of incidents? Is Doctor Merriweather alright? I received a distress call from her HoloCat device._ "

" _Well, we aren't sure what happened to Doctor Merriweather's HoloCat unit... We haven't been able to contact it, and then Cell was here and he was scaring our development team and Minnows BioSolutions IT team and then the power grid failed and there may be a potential biological threat and one of the Minnows executives is being held hostage and yelling at everybody- and_ -" It sounded like the poor device was having a panic attack as it tried to explain at a rapid pace. "- _and we don't have protocols for these situations! We're doing the best we can!_ "

16 briefly weighed what he knew Calliope would want, for him to stay here, out of harm's way should Cell invite himself to her lab again, and the thought that she or the HoloCats required assistance. He listened to the gentle AI cry in distressed while assessing what he could without disturbing the goats.

Cell was nowhere near the BioSolutions lab, in fact, he wasn't even in Nicky Town. But according to the standard baseline readings of where his power level usually sat, they were currently elevated. There was something else there, too, where Cell's energy flared as if in combat. 16 didn't recognize the other energy signature, which had been too weak to detect at first, but steadily rose. Whoever, or whatever it was, they were strong, but unfortunately not strong enough to defeat Cell.

" _HoloCat, do you know where Doctor Merriweather is?_ "

" _Um... Not exactly..._ " HoloCat responded with uncertainty. It didn't respond for a moment, and 16 waited patiently for it to continue. " _She called in from the Minnows Solstice lab... Doctor Merriweather argued with Cell for a bit because she wouldn't tell him where she was. But, well, it did appear that she may be in danger? Some of our present staff have mentioned there may have been zombies and possible infections of some nature?_ " All of these things were quite concerning to hear. " _Our developer and IT intern Rorick set up a quarantine unit. I'm not sure where Cell went, but it sounded like he was going to try and rescue Doctor Merriweather._ "

" _Hm_..." 16 looked at the goats surrounding him, and rearranged them as gently as they could until he could stand up. Some of the goats, mostly the younger ones, stirred a bit to look up at him sleepily but quickly went back to rest. " _Bonbon, I will go to where I sense Cell. If he managed to find Calliope, I will make sure that she is safe_."

" _Oh-Okay!_ " This seemed to calm the AI. " _Please call back and let us know what the situation is_!"

" _I will. Goodbye, Bonbon._ "

" _Goodbye Mister Android 16_!" HoloCat signed off on a cheerful note, and the call disconnected to silence.

He walked some distance away, not wanting to unsettle the goats any more than he had already. Behind him, a small, soft bleat called up to him, and 16 noticed that 17 the Goat had followed him.

"No, Goat 17, you must stay here. I will try to make it back when I can." The goat gave a snort, a small bleat of displeasure, reared back and slammed its head into 16's leg. "It may not be safe where I'm going. You need to stay here."

16 knew the goat would stay, and wouldn't be able to follow into whatever possible dangers were at the lab. Goats couldn't fly, after all.

16 wished that the original 17 had listened to him, and had stayed put on the farm, where he would have been safe from Cell. He tried not to dwell on this but found it difficult. He missed his friends a great deal. He decided that he would do what he could to make sure Calliope didn't come to any harm if he could help it.


	21. Quarantine

Chapter 20: Quarantine

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AN: Guess what's going on possibly-permanent hiatus because the author is lazy and lacks motivation/inspiration? This story is! Sorry to anyone who still enjoys it, but my inspiration has run dry for the time being. I may still pick it back up, but for now its probably safe to assume that this story is dead. So, with that being said, here's what I have written so far for the probably-last-chapter-for-the-foreseeable-future.

I love you Internet People! Stay safe out there!

* * *

~Minnows Solstice Labs~

Cell tried to ignore the ache in his shoulder where Violet had managed to get a lucky shot and sink her teeth in. It would heal up soon, he was sure. The wound wasn't much more than a scratch in his opinion and he wasn't concerned about his body's ability to fight off any potential infection. Hell, _Vegeta_ had dealt more physical damage- blasted off an arm and a portion of his upper chest- and he had healed with no issues.

Calliope, however, was not so easily dissuaded. She was still muttering angrily to herself from the spot where she knelt on the ground, digging through her bag. Any object that was not immediately what she was looking for was tossed aside. At some point, she had given up on trying to put a respirator mask back on her face.

And that damned android had shown up, _again_.

"Doctor Merriweather, are you alright?" 16 asked this in his standard monotone, standing between Cell and Calliope, glaring as much as his rigid face would allow.

"Tonight has been an _absolute clusterfuck_ already, but yeah sure let's just keep going down-fucking-hill, that's _great_." Calliope, still cursed, mostly to herself, but loud enough that she was easy to hear. Apparently, it took her a moment to even hear the question, look up to see the android, and then went back to digging through her bag. She responded with sarcasm, a bit louder, "Oh, yeah, hey 16. Everything's great. Just, so great. So awesome."

Her voice didn't sound as crisp as it usually did, and she often paused to cough a bit and rub at her throat.

16 broke his steady gaze from Cell to look at the remains of the Solstice lab, the few remains of smoldering bodies, and then to Calliope, who was still covered in blood. "Everything does not look like it is 'great'." Apparently, he still hadn't grasped the concept of sarcasm.

"No, 16, I can assure you that everything is _fine_." Cell spoke up finally and returned the android's glare, his arms crossed over his chest. In his mind, it really wasn't any of 16's business what had been going on here. Calliope may not have been able to help the mess this situation turned into, but Cell believed he genuinely did have a handle on the situation. "and Calliope's safe thanks to my timely efforts to save her from her feral, monster of a kind of-but-not-really-aunt."

"Yeah, and exposing yourself to infection! Even though I told you explicitly not to come here!" While she didn't appear to be paying close attention to the conversation, Calliope chimed in.

She had found whatever it was she had been looking for in her bag, and for the time forgetting the piled mess left on the ground, had stood to pace some feet away. With her back turned to them she was reading through what had to be an instructional leaflet, a capsule in her other hand that she had yet to open.

Leaning just far enough to directly address her, Cell spoke a bit louder. Her current attitude was grating on his nerves. "I feel like it's important to note that your aunt had turned into an actual, literal monster."

"And then completely ignored me when I told you not to touch her! Seriously, how hard is it to listen. What, you can pick out a drone from half a kilometer away but you can't hear me? What absolute bullshit." Still not looking at him, or 16, Calliope continued talking as if to herself, but loud enough to be heard clearly. She idly berated Cell while focusing mainly on her latest distraction, occasionally interrupting herself. Throwing the capsule on a bare patch of lawn, she popped out a smallish opaque white building, the side painted with a sharp red flower indicating bio-hazardous materials. "Does this need external power? No. Internal water filtration, generator... Oh good, it has decontamination showers."

She still wouldn't look at him, instead, she grimaced at what she was reading. That she was ignoring him in place of a mature conversation was more than frustrating.

"Oh, well I'm sorry for not following your incredibly vague instructions to the letter!" Cell moved to step around 16, who had been looking between him and Calliope in turn and spoke loudly. This got her attention, she first looked up to him with some surprise. "I'm sure your plan of staying put and dying with some cooked up scheme to contain this, without someone to save you, would have worked out perfectly!"

She was quick to recover though, and shot back in an equally raised voice, this time pointing an accusatory finger at Cell. "It would have worked out better than this! You're covered in scratches and-and GOO and-"

"And _what_ , I should have just let you get yourself killed?!" Cell cut her off, spitting the question with venom. Yelling seemed to be the only language she seemed to respond to at this moment, and he was more than willing to match it.

" _Yes_! You should have just let me die to contain this mess, dammit!" Calliope roared with absolute frustration, an unexpected sentiment that Cell balked at.

He faltered on an adequate response for several moments. Staring at Calliope, he knew he was serious, that she would have given up her life without a second thought if he hadn't shown up. That was unacceptable.

Cell fixed his face, forcing the distress and disgust to settle into something neutral. He recrossed his arms, tried to calm the storm inside, and turned his face away from Calliope. "Fine! Next time I won't bother to interrupt your overly complex attempt at suicide!"

"Fine! Good! Thank you!" She was still glaring at him before turning away. When she spoke again her agitation was subdued. "Now, come on."

Looking back to see Calliope approaching the small building she erected just minutes before, Cell briefly considered abandoning the situation to go back to his arena. He could guess the quiet there would last for about as long as it took her to get back in contact with her drones to yell at him. He dismissed the idea before following through, however. As annoying as the situation was, he couldn't very well leave her in this situation alone. Cell refused to consider 16 to be capable of much help.

He could only imagine what sort of annoyances she would put him through in the name of decontamination and examination. Who knows how long Calliope would want to keep them locked up in a confined space. The idea suddenly shown with greater appeal.

Another thing that Calliope was sure to take issue with dawned at the edge of Cell's senses. He perked up, distracted from the keypad at the front where she quietly talked to herself about whether or not 'the settings were defaulted for access and control' on that particular unit. Of course, she wouldn't be able to notice.

"Calliope, I am sensing several others approaching this position." 16 was the first willing to speak up about this latest development.

"Huh?" It took several moments for her to stop messing around with the keypad at the quarantine unit to turn around and stare at the android with utter confusion.

"Goku and his little friends." Cell started to explain. "They must have noticed my little tussle with whats-her-name."

Calliope's expression changed to a grimace. "Oh, great, because that's exactly what this situation needs right now."

"Let them come, I'm sure they're curious about what happened." Cell smirked to himself as an amusing thought surfaced. "Perhaps if any of them ended up infected they would provide a better challenge than what they have so far."

"Absolutely not!" Calliope whirled around from the panel at the front of the quarantine unit, with a new flare of agitation. She closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed at her temples over skin that was still smeared deep red and black. Cell wondered if any of it was her own blood. In a false calm, she spoke without opening her eyes. "16, could you go intercept them and, just, make sure no one comes within, let's call it a kilometer, of the lab? Preferably downwind. I have no idea if there were any airborne contagions released in the area, but I'd like to stop any potential spreading of... Whatever the hell Violet had."

16 looked to Calliope at her request, then gave a glance at Cell that might have been interpreted as suspicious if the android had more articulate facial expressions. When his eyes settled back on the young doctor. "I do not think it is wise for me to leave you here alone with Cell."

"16, it is fine. Cell's not going to hurt me." She didn't hesitate to respond and didn't look to Cell for confirmation to her statement. When 16 didn't budge after a few seconds she sighed and added, "I'm serious. It's fine. I imagine the worst he's going to do is annoy me."

The android seemed to process that information over several seconds, and Cell had to muse that blow to the head had left some remaining damage. 16's head may have appeared fixed, but vital computing parts might have been lost. Eventually, 16 gave a simple before turning to direct a distinct glare. "If anything happens to her-"

"Oh what, you'll kill me? I'd love to see you try that again." Cell cut off the threat, amused that the android thought that it was necessary, or intimidating.

"Excuse me! Can you two not do this right now? Please?" Once again she was losing her patience, Calliope cut into the conversation, looking between Cell and 16. "Pretty please with goddamn sugar on top?"

16 gave one last look of warning to Cell before turning and flying off in the direction the warriors were approaching from. Calliope gave a clear sigh of relief before she turned back around to attend to the quarantine unit. She punched in a few numbers, swiped a card, and the keypad blinked with green backlighting. The door made a pleased-sounding tone and slid open.

"Right. Cell, come on, into quarantine." Calliope briefly glanced back at him, gestured at the open doorway which streamed white light onto the ill-illuminated yard. She didn't wait for him before going in herself.


End file.
